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THE APOSTLES' CREED: 



CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE WANTS OF THE RELIGIOUS SENSE, 
AND CERTAIN ERRORS OF THE PRESENT DAY. 



BY THE REV. 

THOMAS GRIFFITH, A.M. 

MINISTER OP RAM's EPISCOPAL CHAPEL, HOMERTON, 
AUTHOR OP " THE SPIRITUAL LIFE," ETC. ETC. 




_ LONDON: 

HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY; 
HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO, PATERNOSTER ROW. 

1842. 



^'^^'l 

V ^^b 



LONDON : 

PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEV, 

Bangor House, Shoe Lane. 



p^ TO HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY 

QUEEN ADELAIDE. 



Madam, 

It is with feelings of reverent gratitude that 
I dedicate to your Majesty, by your Majesty's most 
gracious permission, the following practical Expo- 
sition of the Apostles' Creed. 

The value of this permission is greatly enhanced 
to me, by its being accorded in consequence of your 
Majesty's approbation of my former work on the 
Spiritual Life. 

I earnestly pray that the divine Truths of this 
Creed may be increasingly blessed to your Majesty's 
advancement in the experience of that Life. 

I have the honour to be, 
Madam, 
Your Majesty's most grateful and 
devoted humble Servant, 

THOMAS GRIFFITH. 



PREFACE. 



To the members of my congregation, at whose request 
this Work is published, I aiFectionately commend it. 

You will find in it the substance of what, in various 
ways, both private and public, I have endeavoured to 
expound to you by word of mouth. And I have been 
the less reluctant to give to the sentiments which it con- 
tains the more permanent form which they now assume, 
because I hope (as I also pray) that they may supply to 
others, what you profess to have found in them for your- 
selves, a thread, however slender, to guide the earnest 
Christian through that tangled labyrinth of multiform 
error, in which so many minds are now in danger of 
being lost. Such Works as those of Pearson and Bar- 
row, on the Creed, are storehouses for all time. I offer 
these pages as a hand-book for the present times. 

For it has been my object to treat the several Arti- 
cles of the Christian Faith, First, with reference to the 
practical needs and experiences of the religious sense ; 
exhibiting their bearing and importance in relation to the 
grand essential work of the spiritual life. And, Secondly, 
with reference to the manifold exaggerations and per- 
versions to which a zeal for an ecclesiastical Formalism 



IV PREFACE. 

on the one hand, and a disorganizing Spirituahsm on the 
other, expose us. Hence the extent at which I have 
dwelt on the topics of the Holy Catholic Church, and 
the Communion of Saints ; and generally on the entire 
Avork of the Holy Ghost, as the Vicegerent of Christ, 
" by whom the whole body of the Church is governed 
and sanctified." While other fundamental points, such 
as the Personality of God — the Deity of Christ — the 
evidence for His Resurrection — the assurance of our own 
continued being and blessedness after death — and the 
nature and grounds of that belief to which the Articles 
of our Creed are entitled, have received an attention 
proportioned to my deep conviction of their moment- 
ousness. 

The occasion, then, and object of the Work, deter- 
mine the point of view from which it is to be judged of. 
They will account for its not pretending, in any case, to 
a frill theological treatment of the various topics which 
it touches. They will explain why on some it is mea- 
gre, — on others diffuse — in all, popular and practical. 
Everything has been subordinated to what appeared to 
me most demanded by the circumstances of our age, and 
the necessities of a reflecting mind. May it be sanctified 
to the ends for which it has been written! May you, 
dear friends, and many a reader besides, find in it food 
for thought, and nourishment for piety, unto eternal 
life! 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

GOD THE FATHER. 

PAGE 

Chap. I. — God the Ground of all Existence. . . 3 
The Knowledge of God's truth, is the one thing needful for us 

here. .... ... 3 

This knowledge is to be obtained only from the inspired Word. 3 

And that upon our personal judgment and responsibility. . 4 
The essential points of it are summed up in The Apostles' 
Creed : . . . . . . .5 

Whose articles afford answers to our most pressing questions, as 
limited — sinful — feeble beings. . . . .7 

As LIMITED beings we have revealed to us : 

1. In the midst of Multiplicity, a One. . . .9 

2. ,, ,, Appearance, a Real One. . . .11 

3. „ „ Change, a Permanent One. . . .12 

4. „ „ Effects, a Causative One. . . .15 
Which One, real, permanent, and all-causative Being stands in 

close relation to us. . . . . .16 

And therefore is to be contemplated with reverence — and with 
trust. . . . . . , .16 

Chap. II. — God the Original of all Intelligence, . .19 

Our only right conception of God is that formed from analogy 
with the iV/??z(Z of man. . . . . .19 

Such a conception is, 

1. Reasonable. Commended to us by tlie condderation of our 
oion nature. . . . . . . .20 

Which obliges us to suppose Him who is the Ground of our Intelli- 
gent, and Moral, Being, to be Himself Intellective and Holy. . 22 

2. Scriptural. Authenticated by the declarations of Holy 
Writ, . . . . . . . .23 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

3. Necessary. 1. For our preservation from the deadliest 
errors concerning God : — those of Atheism — Fatalism — Pan- 
theism. . . . . , . .27 

2. For the nourishment of right dispositions 
towards God : — those of Reverence — Communion — Suhmissive- 
ness. . . . . . . . .35 

Chap. III. — God the Author op all Good. . . .39 

God as " Our Father " exercises All-heneficent Love — ^All-pro- 
viding Wisdom — All-Controlling Care. . . .40 

For, this term " Father," in Scripture, expresses the relation of a 
parent to his child — a householder to his family— a sovereign to 
his people. . . . . . .48 

And calls therefore, in return, for our love — gratitude — affiance. . 51 

Chap. IV. — God the Lord of all Power. 

Our conception of Might is twofold ; and God is " Almighty" 
in both respects . . . . . . bQ 

1. As -Force, hy his divine Life. . . . .56 

2. As Influence, by his divine Will. . . . .58 
And as such related to — and to be adored by— us. . . 60 
What a caution this suggests to the rebellious ! — and an encourage- 
ment io the subm\&&\yQ\ . . . . .63 

Chap. V. — God the Creator of all Worlds. 

It is by Faith that we regard God as the " Maker of heaven 

AND EARTH." . . . . . . Q6 

And this assures us that all things were made by him— out of 
nothing— by the simple energy of the Divine will. . . 66 

Whence learn — The insignificance of all created things—the Worth 
of the Creator's favour— The blessedness of the New Creation. . 72 



PART II. 

GOD THE SON. 

Chap. I — The Office of Christ. . . , .79 

The title " Jesus" expresses the Office of Christ as the Saviour — 
the Saviour whom God has appointed — the Saviour, himself 
divine. . . . . . . .SO 

In which character he affords his people Deliverance from evil — 
Protection, through their pilgrimage — Introduction to their pro- 
mised rest. . .... 85 



CONTENTS, Vll 

PAGE 

Chap. IL The Dignity op Christ. . • . . 90 

1. The leading Idea indicated by the title "Christ" is that of 
God's King — the Sovereign of the world. . . .90 

2. This title is assigned to Jesus as the reality of that idea. . 93 

This he was foretold' to be, by the prophets— showed himself to be, 
in his life— was declared to be, by his resurrection— proved him- 
self to be, by his providential visitations from heaven— and will 
fully manifest himself to be, when he shall come again. . 93 

Chap. III. The Nature op Christ. . . . .108 

1. The meaning of the title "God's only Son" in the mind of 
those % whom it was used. . • • • .109 

They employed it to distinguish him, from all human beings— all 
superhuman beings — all conceivable forms of created being — as 
equal in nature to God himself. . . . .110 

2. Its meaning in the mind of those to whom it was used. . 114 

How necessary this truth, to assure us of God's love to us — of our 
acceptance with God — of our triumph over sin. . .117 

Chap. IV. — The Authority of Christ. . . . .121 

Christ is " Our Lord." 1. As the Teacher of his people. — 2. As 
their Ruler. — 3. As their Protector. . . .122 

Chap. V. — The Incarnation of Christ. . . . .135 

1. The Fact commemorated in the words '' Who was conceived 

BY the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary." . 135 

It is God becoming man ! . . . . . ] 35 

And that in accordance with the inspired predictions concerning 
the Christ — the place, and the manner, of his birth. , .136 

2. The Reasons intimated for this fact. . . . .139 

1. In order to the re-union of the Father with his outcast children. . 139 

2. In order to their restoration to the Father. . . 143 

3. In order to their being sustained in union with the Father. . 145 

Chap . VI. — The Death of Christ. .... 149 

1. Its Historical Certainty. . . . . .150 

As to time — manner— circumstance. . . . .151 

2. Its doctrinal meaning. . , . . .154 

It was a sacrifice for sin — effectual to our reconciliation — accept- 
ance — confidence, before God. . . . .155 

Chap. VII. — The Resurrection of Christ. . . .161 

Sect. I. The Certainty op the Resurrection. . .162 

1. The Apostles had the fullest opportunity for knowing the truth 
concerning this event. . . . . . .164 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

2. There was every thing in their character to assure us that they 
would state that truth. . . . . .16.5 

Its simplicity — straightforwardness— vehemence. . . 166 

3. All circumstances conspired to prevent their being mistaken as 

to that truth. . . . . . . .168 

For their evidence is not that of credulous expectants — and it is 
corroborated by that of their adversaries— and of the general body 
of disciples. . . . . . .168 

4. There are striking collateral incidents which show that such an 
event must have occurred. . . . . .171 

These are, the manifest change of demeanour in the enemies of 
Jesus — in the general multitude of the Jews — and in the friends 
of Jesus. . . . . . .172 

Sect. II. The Significancy op the Resurrection. . . 178 

1. The Sj)iritual Idea of which it is the Sjonbol, is that of our 
Transference from a state of alienation to one of acceptance with 
God. . . . . . . . .179 

2. Its Moral Bearing affects our faith — our energy — our patience. . 185 

Chap. VIII. — The Exaltation op Christ. . . . 191 

1, The Fact of this Exaltation. . . . .191 

It was predicted by Jesus— was testified by his followers— was con- 
firmed by subsequent circumstances. . . . 191 

2. The Doctrine of this Exaltation. . . . .194 

Christ's whole Interposition is illustrated by the figure of priestly 
Mediation. . . . . . .194 

This Mediation comprises three functions : The offering of a sacri- 
fice — the presenting the blood of the victim before God — the re- 
turning to bless the worshipper in the name of the Lord. . 194 

Christ's Intercession is the fulfilment of the Second of these func- 
tions, in which character he is all-gracious towards our infirmities 
— all-sufficient for our constantly recurring needs — all-powerful 
to afford us patronage and help. . . . .195 

Chap. IX. — The Second Coming op Christ. . . . 206 

The Church is waiting for the final developement of God's scheme 
of salvation. . . . . . .206 

1. The Certainty of Christ's return to complete this develope- 
ment : " He shall come." .... 207 

Prophetic truth is as sure to us, as historical ; resting on the same 
divine testimony. ..... 207 

The second coming of Christ is assured to us by his Apostles — by 
himself— by the angels, upon his ascension. . . . 207 



AND THE DEAD. 



CONTENTS, 




IX 

PAGE 


t's return. " To 


JUDGE THE 


QUICK 

. 210 



For Judgment pertains to him as the Christ, the King. . 210 

He will come again, to vindicate his royal authority — to punish all 
■who resist that authority — to recompense all who have submitted 
to that authority — to establish that authority over all the earth. 212 



PART III. 

GOD THE HOLY GHOST. 

Chap. I. — The Nature op the Holy Ghost. . . . 221 

Religious truth requires for its right apprehension, religious expe- 
rience. ....... 221 

Our experience of Corruption and Infirmity prepares us for , 

the Doctrine of God the Holy Ghost. . . . 222 

The Nature of the Holy Ghost is sufficiently intimated by his 
Titles. . . . . . . .222 

1 . As " the Holy Ghost " he is declared to be similar to our own 
spirit. ....... 222 

Invisible — but yet substantial — the subject of personal acts — and 
distinguished from those in, or through, or by, or towards whom he 
exercises those acts. ..... 223 

2. As " the Holy Ghost," he is declared to be Divine. . . 226 

And there are ascribed to Him divine works — qualities — acts. . 226 

This subject, conjoined with what is ascribed equally to the Son, 
brings us to the Idea of the Trinity in Unity. . . 228 

This Doctrine is distinctly revealed in Scripture ; though it cannot 

be clearly understood by us. . . . . 228 

But the God whom it declares to us is intimately connected with 
ourselves and our well being. .... 230 

Chap. II. — The Office of the Holy Ghost. . . . 233 

This Office has reference to the Church — or body of the followers 
of Christ. . . . . . ,233 

1. It consists in tJie suppl?/ing to them the presence oftMir Lord. . 233 

For the Holy Ghost was promised to be to the disciples invisibly, all 

that Jesus had been to them visibly. . . . 234 

Whence he is called The Spirit of Christ. . . .235 

And supplies the presence both of Christ, and of the Father. . 236 

See hence the essential Unity of the Godhead. . . 236 

2. And this bi/ a real indwelling in their souls. . . . 237 

1. This is a fa.ct, not, indeed, perceptible by the senses. . . 237 

For the Spirit, by his very name and nature, is super-sensuous . 237 



X CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

2. But yet which commends itself to our Reason. . . 238 
For this presence of the Spirit cannot but be inferred from its 

effects : for those effects spring not from ourselves — nor can they 
be produced in us by our fellow Christians — and must therefore 
be traced up to the inworking of the Holy Ghost. . .238 

3. And is assured to our faith by revelation. . . . 244 
Which speaks of it as the special gift of Christ — actually possessed 

by his people — knowable by their inward consciousness — and 
manifest to outward observation. . . . 244 

How important then to ask, Have I this Spirit ? . .247 

For it is promised, not to a body of men, but a class of minds. 248 

Chap. III. — The Work op the Holy Ghost. 

The Church, the Sphere op the Spirit's Operation. 250 
The Church is the aggregate of Christ's followers. . . 250 

Through which the Holy Ghost communicates the presence and 
grace of Christ. . . . . . .251 

1. Jesus designed that his disciples should constitute a distinct, 
organized community. . , . . .253 

For he came, not as a Teacher only, but a Ruler. . .253 

And therefore ordained that his followers should be publicly conse- 
crated to his service — be manifestly distinguished from the world 
around them — and act in concert as an organized body. . 254 

Whence he appointed for them Rulers— who should, however, have 
no authority but as they acted according to his will. . 256 

Promised them historical permanency — and constituted solemn or- 
dinances of admission into, and continuance in, their fellowship. 257 

How important then, is social religion ! . . . 258 

2. Such a community was accordingly formed by the Apostles, in 
Jerusalem. ....... 259 

A community, definite and organic ;— with sacramental distinc- 
tions ; — cherishing the inspirations — exhibiting the graces — sub- 
mitting to the authority— and diffusing abroad the life, of the 
Spirit of God who dwelt within it. . . .261 

How similar the principles of the English Church. . . 266 

Chap. IV. — The Church, Catholic. .... 268 

3. As the Gospel spread throughout Judea, and into other lands, 
other communities were formed on the same principles, and for 

the same ends. . . . . . .268 

The personal followers of Jesus formed A Church. . . 269 

But soon they spread abroad, and founded other Churches. . 270 

Which churches were co-ordinate with the first Church at Jeru- 
salem. . . . . . .274 

How false therefore the claims of the Church of Rome to jurisdic- 
tion over other Communities. .... 274 

4. And it is the aggregate, or Sum of such particular communi- 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE 

ties, contemplated abstractedly, as an ideal whole, under the 
presidency of Jesus as its Head, which is called in Scripture 
The Church ; and in the Apostles' Creed " The Catholic," 
or universal, " Church." ..... 277 

This is the sense in which the phrase " The Church " is used in 
Scripture — and in which its catholicity is defined by ancient 
writers ... ... 278 

Chap. V. — The Church, holy. ..... 282 

5. The end for which our Lord designed the formation of these 
several religious communities, which, taken together as an ideal 
whole, are called " The Church," is the more effectual commu- 
nication of Himself, by His Spirit, to all the members of the 
same ; with reference to which end, and the relation into which 
the Church is brought to Christ in order to that end, it is 
called " the Holy Catholic Church," .... 283 

Sect. I. — The Church holy, by Relation to Christ. . . 284 

This relative holiness is represented by St. Paul under the figure 
of the conjugal relation. ..... 285 

1. Christ has purchased to himself the Church. — 2. He purifies it by his 
word. — 3. He presents it to himself accepted through his righteous- 
ness. . . . . . . .286 

Contemplate this relation of the Christian to his Lord, with adoring 
gratitude— jealous care — earnest fidelity. . . . 292 

Sect. II. — The Church holy, by Assimilation to Christ. . 296 
Ideas are never fully realized in fact. .... 296 
But the relative holiness of the Church forms the standard of ap- 
proximation, for the personal holiness of its members. . 297 

The ultimate end for which the Church has been constituted, is the 
producing in its members the presence and life of Christ. . 298 

This is furthered by the instructions of his ministers— the fellow- 
ship of his people — the infusion of his Spirit. . . 299 

Chap, VI, — Christian Charity. . . . . .313 

The Work of the Holy Ghost in the Church consists in the pro- 
duction and nourishment of the three Christian graces, Charity 
— Faith — and Hope. . . . . .313 

Christian Charity respects our relation to our fellow-Christians in 
" THE Communion of Saints." .... 316 

This Charity comprises Christian Sympathy — Fellowship — and 
Beneficence, . . . . . .318 

Sect, I, — Christian Sympathy. . . . , .318 

This comprises unity of Sentiment — of Feeling — and of Purpose. 319 



Xll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Sect. II. — Christian Fellowship. .... 325 
This results from looking on Christ's people as " holy," and there- 
fore holding communion with them, for His sake. . . 325 
1. Scripture example calls to this. .... 326 

For it shows us that the first churches were mixed bodies — and gives 
no instance of separation from a church because of its alleged 
impurity, or want of discipline. .... 326 

'2, Ecclesiastical practice was ever conformed to this. . . 333 

3. Christiati principle and feeling demand this. . . . 333 

For these prompt to fellowship with the unconverted, on account of 
their consecration to Christ— and in order to bring them into 
likeness to Christ. ..... 334 

Sect. III. — Christian Beneficence. .... 338 

The Beneficence of the primitive Christians has been misunder- 
stood. ....... 339 

It was not community of goods, but communication of all needful 
aid. . . . . . . .340 

How essential the principle of such beneficence ! „ . 346 

Sect. IV". — Christian Charity a work of the Holy Ghost. 

1. It is no mere natural disposition ; — either of good-heartedness 
— good-fellowship — affection — friendship — but the divinely in- 
fused temper of Christ himself. . . . .350 

2. It must be fostered in us hy sedulous culture : by cherishing a 
sacred reverence — patient forbearance — cordial confidence — 
towards our fellow-Christians. ..... 356 

Chap. VII.— Christian Faith. . . . . .363 

Christian Faith respects our relation to God through the " For- 
giveness OF Sins." ..... 364 

1. The Christian stands before God as relieved from condemnation. 365 

2. Such a relation to the Father, he owes to that purification by the 
Son, of which his baptism is the symbol. . . . 375 

3. And a practical sense of this relation is a work of the Holy 
Ghost ; — illuminating the mind to perceive the glory of Christ — 
reconciling the heart to appropriate the work of Christ — and sub- 
duing the will into union with Christ. .... 376 

Chap. VIII.— Christian Hope. . . . . .381 

Christian Hope respects our relation to the world to come, and 

" THE resurrection OF THE BODY AND THE LIFE EVER- 
LASTING." ....... 382 

Sect. I. — The Permanency of the Soul, probable. . . 383 

This truth resi^ects onv personal continuance in being, . .383 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

PAGE 

Which is assured to us by the anticipations of our human instinct 
— the conclusions of our intellect — the demands of our moral 
sense — the convictions of our religious belief. . . 383 

Sect. II. — The Permanency of the Soul, certain. . . 396 

1. Death produces no interruption of what we at present enjoy ; — 
either of life — consciousness — or social sympathy. . .396 

2. It affords the introduction to what we at present are wanting in. 408 

Immunity from trial — Deliverance from sin — Complete enjoyment 
of the presence of our Lord. .... 408 

How essential is Christian experience to the very understanding — 
and still more the lively Hope — of the future blessedness. . 412 

Sect. III. — The Resurrection of the Body. . . .414 

This truth respects om future relation to the world of which we 
form apart. ...... 414 

i. What is my body ? — What my relation to it ? — What the pur- 
pose for which it is given me ? . . . .415 

2. Why win this body be restored to me ? In order to the restora- 
tion of our relation to this world, at Christ's second coming, . 418 

For this is the time of the manifestation of his saints — of their 
renewed connexion with this lower world — and of their reception 
of such bodies as shall fit them for this connexion. . .419 

The blessedness of departed saints is, therefore, though complete, 
yet not completed — though perfect, not final. . . 422 

Sect. IV. — The Life everlasting. .... 424 
This truth respects our relation to tlie final foHunes of the world. 425 
For, " the Life everlasting" is the age of the setting up the king- 
dom of heaven, at the revelation of Christ. . .425 
And it comprises — the final perfecting— splendour — and perma- 
nence, of aU things. ..... 429 

PART IV. 

BELIEF OF THE TRUTH. 
Chap. I. — Belief, an intelligent Conviction of Truth. 

The very title of our Confession of Faith, " the Creed," calls on 
us to consider the nature of tliat belief vflaich. we therein pro- 
fess. . . . . . . .437 

It includes, First, an intelligent conviction of truth. . .438 

Our convictions rest on two grounds : direct Perception — and indi- 
rect Conclusion, ..... 438 

Of this latter there is 
1 . A Faith in the deductions of Reason ; on which rest the truths of 
the first division of our Creed. .... 440 



XIV CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

2. In the depositions of Testimony ; on which rest the Facts of the 
Second Division. . . . • , • 441 

3. In the Assertions of Authority, on which rest the doctrines of the 
Third Division. . . . . . .445 

How personal— and how practical, a thing is Faith ! . . 447 

Chap. II. — Belief, an hearty Affection for Truth. . . 451 

We are accountable for our belief, because Faith includes in it 
the affections of the heart. ..... 452 

On the state of the heart depend our attention to truth — under- 
standing of truth — appreciation of truth. . . . 452 

Chap. III. — Belief, a practical Submission to Truth. . 459 

As the Relation to God into which the disclosures of the Creed 
bring us, so are the Duties which we owe to him. . . 459 

The Belief of God as our Father demands that we imitate him — 

hold communion with him — exercise a filial zeal for him. , 461 

That of God as our Redeemer involves a hearty closing with his 

grace— an adoring gratitude — a dutiful devotedness. . 463 

That of God as our Sanctifier requires that we count religion a 
spiritual work — confide in the Spirit as able to produce it in us— 
and diligently cherish his inspirations. . . . 466 



Page 165, last line, ybr and, readoxij. 

209, line four from bottom,/br thirty, read forty. 



THE APOSTLES' CREED. 



PART I. 



GOD THE FATHER. 

Credo ut intelligam. — Anselm. 

Une des principales sources de la corruption des hommes, c'est qu'ils ne se 
forment point d'assez nobles ideas de la Divinite. L'idee de la morale que 
Ton suit, et I'idee du Dieu qu'on adore, sont deux choses etroitement jointes 
ensemble. — S a urin . 



Religion does not demand new affections, but only claims the direction of 
those you already have, those affections you daily feel. — We only represent 
to you the higher, the adequate objects of those A^ery faculties and affections. — 
Almighty God is the natural object of the several affections, love, reverence, 
fear, desire of approbation. For though he is simply One, yet we cannot but 
consider him in partial and different views. He is himself One uniform 
Being, and for ever the same, without variableness or shadow of turning ; 
but his infinite Greatness, his Goodness, his Wisdom, are different objects to 
our mind. Hence must arise various movements of mind, different kinds of 
affections. And this variety is just and reasonable in such creatures as we 
are, though it respects a Being simply One, Good, and Perfect. 

Bishop Butler. 



PART I. 

GOD THE FATHER. 
CHAPTER I. 

GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 

There are but two things, in the judgment of St. Chrysos- 
torn, which deserve to be the subject of the Christian's un- 
conditional prayer. For other blessings he may ask, indeed, 
with copious outpouring of his heart before the throne of 
grace ; though always with the limitation, ^' as they may be 
most expedient for me." But the sum of all that he can pray 
for with unhesitating faith, as at the same time indispensable, 
and sufficient, is comprised in those two final petitions which 
wind up our Liturgy, " in this world knowledge of Thy 
truth ; and in the world to come life everlasting." 

Knowledge of God's Truth, then, forms the one thing- 
needful for us in this present world. And this because it 
is the only method and path of transit to the glory of the 
world to come. For thus says our blessed Lord : " This is 
life eternal to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom thou has sent." And consequently this he goes on to 
intreat for his disciples : '' Sanctify them tJirough thy truth ! 
Thy word is truth !" 

Now it is just as being the depository of this Truth, that 
the Bible is of such infinite worth to us ; — that it is called 
The Word of God. In those historical records which are 

B 2 



4 GODj THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 

collected in that sacred book, we have preserved to us all 
that we can possibly know concerning the Truth of God. 
What he has breathed forth through his prophets — what 
he has embodied in the manifestation of his Son — what he 
has proclaimed throughout the world by his Apostles — this 
forms the whole of what the Christian can safely put his trust 
in, and resign his judgment to, as the infallible expression of 
the mind of God. No other declaration of doctrine or of duty 
can bind the conscience, because of no other can we positively 
affirm. Thus saith the Lord ! The opinions of holy men, the 
practices of early Christians, may be more or less in accord- 
ance with this primitive — this only primitive — record ; they 
may more or less develope the ideas of truth and holiness 
which in the word of God have been revealed ; but it is only 
just so far as, in our judgment, they do accord with that 
primitive record, only just so far as, to our honest conviction, 
they do develope the ideas of the Word of God, that they can 
regulate our faith or duty. They may afford us help for the 
understanding of Scripture ; they may show us the gradual 
expansion of the seeds of things embosomed in Scripture ; 
they may exhibit the more settled form of the Institutions 
shadowed out in Scripture ; but they can have for us no 
independent authority, they can claim from us no sepai'ate 
homage. No one, indeed, will undervalue the testimony 
of contemporary witnesses to the authenticity of a deed. 
No one would neglect the information which they may 
be able, from extrinsic sources, to furnish concerning the 
mind and purpose of the Author of that Deed. But still, the 
mere opinion of those witnesses what Judge will suffer to be 
put in as evidence ? And the decision of the cause must 
always turn at last upon the wording of the deed itself, so 
far as, on the best consideration of all the probabilities of 
the evidence, it shall commeLd its meaning to the deliberate 



GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. O 

judgment of the Court. But with the Christian, who must 
account to God, in person^ and on his sole responsibility, for 
his beliefs, as for his acts — this court must be set up within 
the sanctuary of his own heart, this judgment must be pro- 
nounced by his own conscience, with no concession of appeal 
but to the supreme tribunal of the Lord of all. " Holy Scrip- 
ture," says our Sixth Article, " containeth all things neces- 
sary to salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein, 
nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, 
that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be 
thought requisite or necessary to salvation." 

And what is true of the more diffusive writings of ancient 
fathers, who represent to us, — or seem to represent to us — 
the sentiments and practice of the Church of ages subsequent 
to the Apostles — is equally true of those more concentrated 
Summaries of doctrine which, from those ages, have come 
down to us. These are of use to us as showing what was 
then considered the essence of Christian truth. They are 
specially important as proving how few and practical were 
the earlier articles of Christian communion. But the autho- 
rity of those Articles, as regards our submission to them; 
the justification of the view they take of the essence of Chris- 
tianity ; all still depends on the degree in which those sum- 
maries commend themselves to us, as accurately collected 
from the Word of God, and rightly exhibiting the most es- 
sential elements of Christian truth. " The Creeds," says 
our Eighth Article, " ought thoroughly to be received and 
believed ; for they may he proved by most certain warrants of 
Holy Scripture." 

Now of these Creeds one of the most valuable that has come 
down to us is that which is called in our Articles and Prayer 
Book " The Apostles' Creed," and is otherwise termed, as 
having been adopted early by the Latin Church, " The Roman 



b GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 

Creed." The use of such summaries of Christian faith is 
manifestly of very early date. To some confession of the kind 
the assent of Catechumens was required, before their admis- 
sion by Baptism into the Christian Church ; and hence such a 
Summary was called the Mathesis, or Lesson which formed 
the study of the pupils of the Church ; the Symbolum, or 
Token of fellowship with the Christian Community ; and the 
Canon, or Rule according to which the future sentiments of 
the baptized were to be regulated. The number of Summaries 
preserved to us, in different writers, shows that no universal 
form prevailed throughout the various Christian Communities, 
and that the title " Apostles' Creed" must refer, not to the 
origination of this Creed by the Apostles themselves (for this 
would have made all others unnecessary, nay presumptuous) 
but to its believed accordance with the facts and truths which 
they proclaimed.* We find this Creed, however, in the form 
in which we now possess it, in the works of Ambrose, as early 
as the Third Century after Christ. But its use in public 
worship was originally limited to the two seasons of Baptism, 
Easter and Whitsuntide; its recital at every celebration of 
divine service having been first enjoined by Gnaphius, Bishop 

'"" " There is found in the New Testament itself (1 Pet. iii. 21 : 1 Tim. vi. 
12), some trace of a confession of faith being made at baptism ; and such 
confessions were afterwards enlarged so as to take in the main points in which 
Christianity stands opposed to Jews, heathens, and heretics. The object was 
to sum up in them those essentials of Christianity in which aU the churches 
were agreed. Men assured themselves that the doctrine expressed in those 
confessions descended from the tradition of the Apostles, that it was the doc- 
trine which those Apostles tJiemselves had preached with their own lips, and in 
their writings ; but no one imagined that the Apostles had composed such a 
confession Avord for word. It is in the first sense " (of agreement with the 
Apostolic doctrine) " that such a confession was called by them x'/i^vy/ua 
uTocrroXtfcov, and Tec^a^offts aToiTToXixyi. And it was the misapprehension of 
these terms which gave birth to the subsequent fiction that the Apostles 
themselves had literally set forth such a document." — Neander, Geschichte 
derChrht. Rd. 2. 535. 



I 



GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 7 

of Antioch, towards the close of the Fifth Century after 
Christ. 

But it is the substance of this Creed which renders it so 
deserving- of our attentive study. It sums up for us just those 
particular Facts and Revelations, recorded in the word of God, 
which are of the highest moment to our Spiritual welfare. It 
contains answers to questions which spring up unavoidably in 
the mind of every man who looks outward on the world in 
which he lives, or inward on the facts of his immediate con- 
sciousness""; and it propounds to us those answers as matter not 
of speculation but belief — not as intended to satisfy all the 
cravings of the understanding, but as sufficient to still the 
yearnings of the conscience and the heart. And who can ade- 
quately tell the pressing nature of such yearnings ? Who can 
adequately estimate the worth of answers, on divine Authority, 
to enquiries which affect our mental, moral, and spiritual, 
peace ? We are in the condition of children surrounded by 
objects of wonder, struck every moment by things whose 
nature, connexion, and bearing on ourselves we cannot under- 
stand, and therefore asking earnestly. What means all this ? 
The Facts of our position in the world we cannot shut our 
eyes to, yet we cannot understand. The necessities of our 
Nature cry out for relief. The instincts of our rational being 
press out towards something, which they know not, but which 
they " feel after if haply they may find it." Every thing be- 
fore us is imperfect, confused, fragmentary, mutilated. We 
want the completion of the design, the solution of the pro- 
blem, the putting together of the parts, the restoration of the 
ruin I And all this is just what the propositions of the Creed, 
as summing up the R.evelations of the word of God, respond 
to. Do we feel that we are limited beings ? hemmed in in 
space, in duration, in power ; with all things round us, also, 
fluctuating, unsubstantial, dependent ? The Creed declares to 



S GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 

US a Being Unlimited, from whom we sprang, by whom we are 
sustained, and for whose use and glory we were formed. Do 
we feel that we are sinful beings — who cannot satisfy others 
or even ourselves, self- contradictory, self- con demned ? The 
Creed declares to us a Being Holy and Divine, who came into 
the world to save us from this state of Sin. And do we, 
equally, feel that we are /'eeZ'/e beings, — in understanding weak, 
in will uncertain, so that even our best desires, our holiest pur- 
poses, fail of execution ? The Creed declares to us a Being 
Wise and Powerful who can infuse new life into the mind, and 
heart and soul. God the Father, who made us and all the 
world — God the Son, who redeemed us and all mankind — 
God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth us and all the elect peo- 
ple of God, — these are the glorious Objects set before our 
faith, in these most practical Articles of our Belief! 

And now then let us fix our attention on the First set of 
Facts presented to us by the world without us and within us, 
to the enquiries rising out of which the First division of the 
Apostle's Creed affords an answer, drawn from the authorita- 
tive word of God. 

We are limited beings. Ourselves, and all the world in 
which we live, are manifestly bounded, and hemmed in on 
every side. And yet amidst this limitation of things we find 
ourselves so constituted that we can assign no limit to our 
thoughts. The very finiteness of the world awakens in us, by 
the force of contrast, the idea of infinity. The current of 
thought, which has been set in motion by the objects of time 
and sense, cannot be restrained within the bounds of time and 
sense : it flows on irresistibly towards the ocean of the spiritual 
and eternal ; and, dark as is that vast expanse before the men- 
tal eye, so that in vain we try to image to ourselves its Nature, 
we still are not the less convinced, — with a moral conviction — 



GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 9 

concerning its Existence. We are sure that in the very exist- 
ence of a world of sense there is implied the being of a world 
which is not of sense. The seen becomes to us the symbol of 
the Unseen — the imperfect of the Perfect — the finite of the 
Infinite — the restricted of the Absolute. In the midst of 
Multiplicity we are led to the Idea of Unity. In the midst of 
Appearances we learn to believe in Reality. In the midst of 
Change we recognize Permanence. In the midst of things 
acted on, each by each, we are obliged to travel up to the Idea 
of One original, universal, Agent and First Cause. 

Look only at the Multiplicity which this world presents 
to us. On every side, at every moment, particulars innumer- 
able are brought before us ; yet those particulars so connected 
with each other, so arranged in space and linked together 
in time, that we are forced to conceive of them as parts of 
one great whole. Looked at, indeed, in the detail, we count 
each object as itself a whole, possessed of individual being. 
Yet looked at in the aggregate, these manifold particulars go 
to make up in our mind the notion of an universal, for which 
universal the Reason supplies the Idea of a distinct and indi- 
vidual Life, a centralizing Unity, pervading, moulding, or- 
ganizing all. And this Idea it is which is embodied in 
the speculations of the earliest Philosophers when they dream 
of an impersonation of the Universe — or of a Soul of the 
world — or of a central essence spreading itself out in infinite 
expansion — an inward life evolving itself in endless outward 
manifestations. This Idea it is which has maintained a secret 
influence even where the sense of Unity has been broken into 
fragments by the individualizing puerilities of Polytheism.* 

*■ To No>?rav '^I'/ipyjx.a.fftv us n'oXXuv &i&iv t^iorvrus : they broke up the one 
Intelligence into many and several individualities. — Damascenus. 

Sophocles (as quoted from Clement in Pol. Syn. on Deut. vi. 4.) attrihutes 

b5 



]0 GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 

For even where the deifying of the parts has gone to its fullest 
extent, and men have bowed down to gods many, and lords 
many, their very forms of speech betray a latent sense of an 
interior something, a Fate, a diviner nature, in the unity of 
which all gods, as well as men and things, are comprehended. 
" I hear the multitude," says an ancient Christian writer living 
in the midst of heathens, " when they stretch forth their hands 
to heaven, invoking the name not of gods, but God, and in 
their commonest forms of speech exclaiming * God is great I'— 
and, * God is true,' — and, ' If God vouchsafe this to me/ What 
is this natural language of the crowd but a confession of the 
Christian truth, there is One God ? " * 

And this Idea, then, it is, of which the full and clear enun- 

this depravation of the primitive trutli to the avaricious cunning of interested 
men: 

E/Ji TOUi OiX'/ldtiaifflV, iig IffT^V 6iO?, 

"Os ov^avov r 'iriv^i xu) youav fiux^av, 
Tlovrov ri ^a^oTov oi^f4,oi, xa) avif&uv Qla,?. 
QvYiTo) 01 ToXvxi^ita. TXa,VM[/,ivoi 

©sojv ccyaXf^' Ix XtSlvuv, h ^vXuv, h ^etXxtuv 
' H ^^uffortvxruv « \Xs.(poe.vTivu'i rvTTovs 
Qvo-ias 01 TovTots xec) xivoc; Tavnyv^Hi 

" One, assuredljr, only One, is God, who made the heavens, and the wide- 
extended earth ; the azure swell of ocean, and the mighty winds. But we 
mortals, deceived by greedy craftiness,t have made for ourselves images of 
gods, the solace in our afflictions, in stone, and wood, and brass, and gold, and 
ivory ; appointing to them offerings, and empty festivals, and fancying that 
such a work is piety ! " 

* And so the abstract terms ro hlov, 'h duorm, fo v-4"o-rov, numen, all indi- 
cate this latent conviction of one and the same divine essence pervading all. 



t " By the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait 
to deceive." Eph. iv. 14. " Teaching things which they ought not, for filthy 
lucre's sake." Tit. i. 11. " By this craft we have our Avealth." Acts xix. 24. 



GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 11 

ciation is given in the inspired word of God, when it declares 
the existence, amidst all the diversities of place and time and 
people, the multiplicity of men and things, not indeed of a 
generalized impersonation, or of a mundane Soul, or of a self- 
evolving essence, or of an universal, all-compelling Fate, but 
of a One, distinct from the universe, apart from the universe, 
of different essence from the universe, and over all the powers 
of the universe supreme. *' Hear, O Israel, the Lord our 
God is One Lord.'' Deut. vi. 4. " Know therefore this day, 
and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God, in 
heaven above, and upon the earth beneath : there is none 
else." Deut. iv. 39. " O Lord God of Israel, thou art the 
God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth." 
2 Kings xix. 1 5. " Thou art great, O Lord God ; there is 
none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee." 2 Sam. 
vii. 22. " Thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most 
High over all the earth !" Ps. Ixxxiii. 19. 

But look next at the Ajopearances — the ever-varying pheno- 
mena — which the world presents to us. All is mere outside 
surface. We find no substance ; nothing which we can come 
at as the ultimate ground of any visible thing, the real substra- 
tum of the accidents with which our senses are familiar. One 
surface after another is penetrated by the sharp-eyed zeal of 
philosophical experiment — one fold after another is removed 
from the face of Nature ; but all is surface still. " We do not 
know," says Newton, " the substance of anything. We see 
only the figures and colours of bodies, hear only sounds, touch 
only the outward surfaces, smell only odours, and taste tastes : 
we do not, cannot, by any sense or any reflex act, know their 
inward substances." And yet inward substance we are sure 
there must be ! As the base of all appearance we assume it by 
a law of our mental constitution. Our consciousness of per- 



12 GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 

sonal reality obliges us to recognize such reality in other 
beings. And thus in the midst of a world of mere Appear- 
ances — yea, because we find every thing to be but Appearance 
— we are led to believe in an unapproachable Reality, as the 
ground and the support of all. 

And from this conviction springs the second element of the 
Idea of God. Of The One as at the same time Real, Sub- 
stantial, Living : not a notion, but a Being — The Being of all 
beings — the Life of all life. Hence, on the temple of Apollo 
at Delphos, that single word of deepest import, el, " Thou 
art!" Hence, on the temple of Minerva, at Sais, that sub- 
lime inscription, " I am all that ever was, that is, that ever will 
be ; and no mortal has yet lifted up the veil which shrouds 
me." And hence the inspired declarations of the word of 
God, " In Him we live and move and have our being.' Acts 
xvii. 28. "In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and 
the breath of all mankind." Job xii. 1 0. " He is the living 
and true God." I Thess. i. 9. " I am Alpha and Omega, the 
beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which 
was, and which is to come." Rev. i. 8. " I am that I am/' 
" I AM hath sent thee : this is my name for ever, and this is 
my memorial to all generations." Exod. iii. 14, 15. O the 
mysterious reality disclosed to us in that one single term 
" Jehovah !" — the self-subsisting Being, who hath life in him- 
self — who simply is — does not appear to be, but IS. 

And how is our reverence for this substantial One increased 
when we consider further, all the Change which this world 
presents to us. We see in it no Permanence — nothing which 
abides — which we can call invariably the same. Every thing 
material is constantly assuming, with more or less rapidity, in 
hours, or days, or weeks, or centuries, a different form. '• One 
generation passeth away, and another generation cometh. The 



GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 13 

Sun also ariseth, and the Sun goeth down, and hasteth to his 
place whence he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, 
and turneth about unto the north ; it whirleth about continu- 
ally ; and the wind returneth again to his circuits. All the 
rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full : unto the place 
from whence the rivers come, thither they return again." 
" There is no remembrance of former things ; neither shall 
there be any remembrance of things that are to come with 
those that shall come after." Eccles. i. 4 — 7. 11. " The fashion 
of this world passeth away." 1 Cor. vii. 3 1 . 

Such are the facts. What is the conclusion ? Is it, (what 
might seem to the superficial thinker the most natural and 
just,) Seeing that all things that we are acquainted with are 
thus transitory, there can be nothing which is otherwise than 
transitory? Seeing that no visible thing is stable there can 
be no such thing as stability ? Is this, I ask, the conchision 
of the reasoning mind ? Just the very contrary I From the 
very observation of universal transitoriness we are forced to 
the Idea of a One not changeable, but evermore the Same, 
This is the conviction which the Oriental Philosophers express 
when they call God the Constant One, (ecrrioc). This is the 
conviction so beautifully shadowed forth in the Arabian fiction 
concerning the patriarch Abraham. " As Abraham," they write, 
" was walking by night to the city of Babylon, he gazed on the 
stars of heaven, and specially on the beautiful planet Venus, 
and. Behold, said he within himself, the God and Lord of the 
Universe ! But the star set and disappeared : and Abraham 
felt that the Lord of the Universe could not be subject to change. 
Soon after he beheld the Moon at the full. Lo, now, he said, 
the divine Creator, the manifest Deity ! But the moon sank 
below the horizon, and Abraham said again. The Lord of the 
Universe cannot be subject to change. At sunrise he stood 
before the gates of Babylon and saw the whole people pro- 



r4 GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 

strate in admiration before the rising luminary. Assuredly, 
he exclaimed. Thou, wondrous orb, art the Creator and Lord 
of all ! But the sun too went down ! And neither, therefore, 
said the Patriarch, neither canst even thou be my Creator, my 
Lord, and my God. The Lord of the Universe cannot be sub- 
ject to change ! " 

And this conviction does the word of God speak out when 
it styles God "the Ancient of Days." (Dan. vii. 13.) — "the 
everlasting- King." (Jer. x. 10.) — " the eternal God." Deut. 
xxxiii. 27. This, David so deeply felt when, looking round 
on what appear the most stable of all visible things, the deep 
rooted earth, and the abiding heavens, he exclaimed " They 
shall perish but thou shall endure ; yea all of them shall wax 
old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them- 
and they shall be changed ; but Thou art the same, and Thy 
years shall have no end!" Ps. cii. 2G^27* This, Jeremiah 
felt amidst the ruins of Jerusalem, " Thou O Lord remain est 
for ever, thy throne from generation to generation I " Lam. 
V. 19. This, Nebuchadnezzar confessed amidst the marvel- 
lous changes which had come upon himself; " He is the living 
God, and steadfast for ever!" Dan. vi. 26. And this, Moses 
put his confidence in, amidst the mournful proof of human 
instability which the vicissitudes of the journey through the 
wilderness, and the passing away of that whole generation 
which came out with him from Egypt, forced upon him, — 
" Lord, thou hast been our Dwelling-place" — our abiding 
rock amidst the fluctuating waves, — " in all generations ! 
Before the mountains were brought forth" (yet what so seem- 
ingly fixed as they?) "or ever thou hadst formed the earth 
and the world" (yet what so constant amidst all change as 
they"?) " even from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art 
God I" Ps. xc. 1, 9.. 



GOD, THE GROUND OP ALL EXISTENCE. 15 

Yet once again — This One — Real — Unchangeable Being 
we are taught to recognize as the original, universal, Agent 
and First Cause, amidst the mutual influence and dependency 
which the world exhibits to us. Observe how all things are 
acted on ; each by each. How they form an endless chain 
of which each link is alternately cause and effect, effect and 
cause. There is no such thing as a beginning in the world. 
All things are originated. We trace back from one product 
to another, and no where can we stop and say. Here is the 
ultimate, the absolute cause I But yet, through all this pro- 
cess, yea by the very means of it, we are learning to suppose a 
cause, as for each particular effect, so also for all effects taken 
together ; we are strengthening by every fresh observation 
the necessary Idea of causation; we cannot possibly get rid 
of it ; banish it in words, it starts up in our habitual feelings 
and acts ; — and A Cause, therefore, — The Cause of all other 
Causes we must believe ! We have traced the river to its 
tributary streams, and the streams to the brooks, and the 
brooks to their feeding rills, and the rills to their bubbling 
springs, and we must go on to ask Where is the Source of all 
these springs ? from what hidden fountain do they burst forth 
into light? — till the answer, (here again as before,) of Reason 
and of Revelation, is the same ; — that Source is God ; the all 
causative, all influencing God ! " To us," says the Apostle, 
" there is but One God, of whom are all things, and we in 
him." 1 Cor. viii. 6. "All things," says David, "come of Thee." 
1 Chron. xxix. 14. " Thou, even Thou," says Nehemiah, " art 
Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, 
with all their host ; the earth, and all things that are therein ; 
the seas, and all that is therein ; and Thou preservest them all ; 
and the host of heaven worshippeth Thee. Thou art the 
Lord, the God !" Nehem. ix. 6. " For of Him," says St. Paul, 



16 GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 

" and througli Him, and to Him, are all things ; to whom be 
glory for ever; Amen I" Rom. xi. 36. 

Reader, can you have suffered your thoughts to flow in the 
direction which I have endeavoured to give them, and not find 
yourself borne along by them, as by a swelling current, to 
exclaim with fulness of conviction, in the first words of your 
Creed, I believe in God! — I am sure from all that comes 
before me, in the world, and in myself, that there is — there 
must be a Being, the One amidst the Multiplicity which the 
world presents to me — the Real amidst its manifold Appear- 
ances — the Permanent amidst its endless changes — the First 
Cause of all its causes — whom the Scriptures, with their 
wondrous adaptation to the intimate nature and the deepest 
instincts of the men for whom they are written, assume as 
recognized by every mind, and proclaim to be adored by every 
heart, as God? 

But O be careful how you make this most momentous 
acknowledgment I Be careful how you treat the deep con- 
viction out of which it springs I It is an awful thing to 
speak of God I It is a solemn act to breathe forth even 
to your inmost soul the name of God ! For it is no mere 
notion that you thus assent to — no abstract something gene- 
ralized by the reasoning process of the understanding — no 
ultimate point of all the lines of thought. It is the real 
Existence of a Being with whom you are yourself inseparably 
connected, — by whom you are sustained, — in whom you live 
and move, and have your being. To believe that God is, 
is to believe that He is i/our God. And without such faith, 
all theoretical knowledge of God, all speculative assent to the 
proofs of his existence, is but vanity. " One does not say," 
writes Newton, " My eternal, or My infinite, because these 
attributes have nothing of relation in them, but we say My 
God, understanding thereby his relation to us, as the Master 



I 



GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 17 

and Preserver of our life, the Object of our minds and 
thoughts." It is this which gives a practical reality to the idea 
of God, as of a Being whose existence is as certain to you as 
it is inscrutable ; (so certain that the highest formula of 
certainty which men employ is, "As sure as God liveth;") 
and which existence has an immediate bearing on yourself, 
though his presence you can never trace. " Behold, I go 
forward, but He is not there ; and backward, but I cannot 
perceive him ; on the left hand where he doth work, but 
I cannot behold him ; he hideth himself on the right hand that 
I cannot see him; but He knoweth the way that I take." 
Job xxiii. 8 — 10. O for some portion of that ancient Hebrew 
reverence for this inscrutable Ground of all things, which 
dictated as his appropriate title (that which we translate into 
English, God) " The Tremendous One !" That reverence 
which breathes forth in those thrilling words of holy writ : 
"Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find 
out the Almighty to perfection ? It is high as heaven, what 
canst thou do ? deeper than hell, what canst thou know ? 
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader 
than the sea." Job xi. 7 — 9. " The mountains saw 
Thee, O God, and they trembled; the overflowing of the 
water passed by ; the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his 
hands on high; the sun and moon stood still in their habi- 
tation I" Hab. iii. 10. " O Lord, our Lord^ how excellent is 
thy name in all the earth !" Ps. viii. 1. " Holy, holy, holy, 
is the Lord of Hosts ; the whole earth is full of his glory !" 
Isa. vi. 3. 

But let this conviction lead you not only thus to adore the 
Being you believe in, with a lowly reverence ; but to seek your 
repose in Him, with humble trust. It is not the assent of the 
understanding only, which the truth concerning God de- 
mands ; it is not the cold conviction of the reason ; nor even 



18 GOD, THE GROUND OF ALL EXISTENCE. 

the warmest glow of the imagination, kindling with the grand 
Idea of the Invisible ; hut it is the affiance of the heart. It 
is a Being you are recognizing when you say, " I believe 
in God," — a Being who is the ground of your own being. 
And where then shall you find your place of rest but in this 
central point of all existence ? If all around is multiplicity, 
diversity, distraction, where shall your spirit find its peace but 
in the only One ? If all is shadow and illusion, where shall 
you be satisfied but in the only Real and Substantial One ? 
If all is changeful as the surface waves of ocean, where shall 
you find repose but in the bosom of Him who, like the 
unseen depths of ocean, is for ever the Same ? And if one 
law of action and reaction agitates the world, where will you 
hold, but on the " First and with the last," who is " the 
Rock, and his work is perfect ?" Never but in God can the 
soul of man be satisfied, because no where but in God can 
it find the objective reality of its own best imaginings — the 
completion of what it sees to be imperfect — the supply of 
what it finds still wanting, in itself and in the world. 
" Whom have I in heaven but thee ! And there is none 
upon earth that I desire beside thee ! My flesh and my 
heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my 
portion for ever !" 



ly 



CHAPTER II. 

GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

The whole of religious doctrine may be summed up in the 
knowledge of man — of God — and of Christ as the Mediator 
between God and man.* And seeing that this last topic is so 
essentially connected with, dependent on, the other two, it 
follows that we can appreciate it justly, only in proportion to 
our acquaintance with those other two. Christianity rectifies 
the relation between man and God — supplies the means of 
establishing a spiritual communion between man and God — 
■ brings down God to man, and lifts up man to God ; and 
how then can we estimate its worth without a due conception 
of the beings between whom it mediates ? without a know- 
ledge of ourselves and of our spiritual wants ? a knowledge 
of God and his divine perfections ? 

But more — it is from acquaintance with man that we must 
attain to just conceptions of God. " The true knowledge 
of ourselves," says our Second Homily, " is very necessary, 
to come to the right knowledge of God." His Being, indeed, 
we may learn from things around us ; but His Nature we 
must look for in the reflection, faint and imperfect though 
it be, which he conveys to us in our own souls. No one, in- 
deed, has seen God at any time, nor can see him ; yet to our 
conceptions he may, and must be, represented in the forms 
of that spiritual nature, that intelligent and moral being, the 
* Or, technically stated, Anthropology, Theology, Christology. 



20 GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

prerogative of man, which as it is the only power by which 
we come to beheve a Ground of all things, is also the only 
symbol to us of the character of Him in whom we thus 
believe. To have learned the Being of God, is only the 
first step towards that practical faith which is included in 
the first confession of our Creed, " I believe in God." 

And therefore now we must go on to consider the Nature 
of this Being, — as not only the Ground of all existence, but 
the Original, the Archetype, the Ideal, of all intelli- 
gence. 

We must consider, here, how reasonable — how scriptural- 
how indispensable is this view of God : how it may be inferred 
from the consideration of our own nature — how it is authenti- 
cated by the declarations of Holy Writ — how necessary is our 
faith in it to preserve us from the deadliest errors concerning 
God ; and to nourish in us those devout emotions which con- 
stitute the essence of piety towards God. 

See, First, how reasonable is the Idea of God as the Ori- 
ginal of all intelligence — how we are led to it by the considera- 
tion of our own nature. 

In the fourth chapter of the Gospel by St. John we have 
our Lord's authoritative declaration concerning the nature of 
God, that he is a Spirit, " God," says our great Teacher, 
" is a Spirit :" that is, he is to be regarded by us as of a 
rational nature, — mind, not body — inward and intellective, not 
outward and sensible; and therefore pleased, not with ex- 
ternal distinctions of place, and ceremony, and formal wor- 
ship, but only with a worship " of spirit and of truth" — of the 
inward, rational, mind and heart and will of man. That 
which alone has any worth in us is our spirit — the mind 
— the essence of our rational nature. And even so, God is 
Spirit) — the primitive Essence of ail rational being. 



GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 21 

Now here the reference to our own nature as the thing 
known, by analogy with which we are to form our Idea of 
the Unknown, is manifest. There is a mode of being which 
we are acquainted with only by the evidence of our own self- 
consciousness ; which mode of being is distinguishable not only 
from the material body, but from the animal soul. And this 
mode of being, in this distinctiveness, is called by the Apostle 
Paul our spirit : " I pray God, your whole spirit^ and soul, 
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." Our spirit is in fact essentially our Self, as 
distinguished from every thing, however nearly interested in 
it we may be, which is a part of us, but not our Self.* It is 
not, then, our animal life ; it is not our internal consciousness ; 
it is that which forms the hidden and inscrutable essence of 
our being ; which is permanent amidst all changes of the body, 
and all fluctuations of the mind ; and to which all the actings 
both of body and mind must be referred not simply as to their 
actuating power, but their substantial ground. 

And here is the point of view from which our Lord would 
have us to look upward, if we would behold aright the Nature 
of God. As the human spirit to the limited sphere in which 
it dwells and acts, so is God, The Spirit, to the unlimited 
sphere in which He dwells and acts ; — not only the ground of 
all existence, but the intelligent, self-determining, and energetic 
Will which watches over, actuates, and regulates all existence; 
inscrutable to us even as our own spirit is inscrutable, but 
to be conceived by us as exercising just those acts of thought, 
and feeling, and volition, which are the special modes of agency 
of our own spirit. Without such a conception, derived from 
such an analogy, our idea of God can never rise above the 
notion of a material force — or a vital energy — or a plastic, 
essence. With such a conception, so derived, we rise into the 
scriptural Idea of the living and true God, 

* See Bp. Butler ; Analogy of Religion. 



22 GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

And see how we diVe forced by the contemplation of our spi- 
ritual nature to ascend to an Ideal of that nature, an archetype 
and original of all intelligence, in Him who is the Ground of all 
existence. As when we look out on external things their very 
being assures us of a Ground of that being, and their very im- 
perfections raise in us the Idea, and force on us the belief, of 
a perfection in that Ground of their being, which in the things 
themselves we cannot find ; — a One amidst multiplicity, a 
Reality amidst appearance, a Permanent amidst change, a prime 
Agent amidst things acted on ; — so when we look in to our- 
selves, the very nature of Spirit, with which we thus become 
acquainted, so essentially different as it is from that of external 
things, assures to us the existence of A Spirit who must be 
the Original of this peculiar mode of being ; and the very limi- 
tations and imperfections which we discover in the actings of 
our own spirit, while they raise in us the Idea oblige us to the 
belief^ of similar actings, in unlimited perfection^ in that Ori- 
ginal Spirit. What in us is dim reflection must be in Him im- 
mediate intuition. What in us is perturbed emotion must be in 
Him pure passionless serenity of moral feeling. What in us 
is feeble and self- contradictory desire and purpose, must be in 
Him absolute Self-determination, unchecked Will.* 

And these conclusions are corroborated by the intimations 
of our moral sense. That moral sense is inseparable from our 
Spiritual nature. And the moral sense, however undeveloped 
in some, and repressed in others, yet in proportion to its vigour 
craves for and demands the Idea of One in whom its primary 

* " Nee vero Deus ipse, qui intelligitiir a nobis, alio modo intelligi potest, 
nisi MENS soluta qusedam et libera, segregata ab omni concretione mortaU, 
omnia sentiens et movens, ipsaque praedita motu sempiterno." — Cicero, 
Tusc. disp. 1. 27. 

" Quid est Deus ? Mens universi. . . Quid ergo interest inter naturam Dei 
et nostram ? Nostri melior pars animus est : in iUo nulla pars extra animum. 
Totus ratio est." — Seneca, Nat. Qucest. 1. Pref, 



GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 23 

elements exist in all their force and fulness. We love right 
and hate wrong ; we praise self- consistency and blame self- 
contradiction ; we are pleased with benevolence and disgusted 
with ill-will ; we delight in equity and abhor injustice ; we 
admire energy and disapprove of indolence. But nowhere in 
the world do we find these feelings satisfied ; at no time in our 
own breast are they unmixed and pure. Can they be really 
destitute of all objective truth? Are they the Index of what 
has no where any full reality ? Or must we not believe the 
existence, as we certainly possess the Idea, of a Being who is 
perfectly benevolent, and perfectly right, and perfectly just and 
perfectly energetic, and perfectly self-consistent, who in a word 
which indicates the combination of these several elements in 
one, is perfectly Holy ? And such a Being then is He who is 
the Ground of all Being. Such is the Nature of Him who is 
The Spirit : not only the First, but also the Wisest and the 
Best of Beings — the only Wise, and Good. 

Such is the Idea of God, as the Original of all intelligence, 
to which we are led by the consideration of our own nature. 

See, secondly, how this Idea is authenticated by the declara- 
tions of Holy Writ. 

For it is not only in the passage already quoted from St. 
John that we are taught this truth of the analogy between the 
Nature of God and the spirit which is in man. In the very 
first chapter of the Bible we have the same fact intimated to us. 
For that passage (v. 26, 27), which tells us that " God said. Let 
us make man in our image, after our likeness," and which thus 
reveals to us that man is different from all other earthly beings, 
in this one particular that his spirit is modelled after God 
himself ; this shows conversely, that we can conceive of Him 
whose image we bear, only in the forms of that peculiar nature 
with which he has endowed us. If man was made Hke God, then 



24 GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

God must be conceived like man. The copy, however minute, 
is the representative of the original, however vast. And when 
the Original is beyond our ken it must be by looking at the 
lineaments of the copy that we shall form a just, though never 
an adequate, conception of that Original. 

But again. You may go on to the New Testament and find 
the same truth similarly declared. For why does St. Paul 
remind the Athenians (Acts xvii. 28, 29), that " we are all 
God's offspring," that is, of his race and family ? For this 
very purpose of showing to them the folly, as well as impiety, 
of their idolatry — of arguing with them that since man is of 
the race of God, God can be conceived by us only under the idea 
of man ; of man, too, not as he is merely material, visible, sen^ 
sible, body ; but only as he is immaterial, invisible, intelligent 
spirit — and thus of proving to them that no material image, 
whether of lower creatures or of the bodily nature even of man 
himself, can fitly represent that Being who is like our spirit^ and 
therefore, even as our spirit, an object not of sight, nor even of 
imagination, but only of pure Idea. Mark the argument, in St. 
Paul's own words : " In him we live and move and have our 
being ; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are 
also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of 
God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto 
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." 
How precisely the same mode of argument as that of Jesus 
with the woman of Samaria I Neither Jerusalem nor Gerizim, 
says our Lord, is the more sacred place for worshipping God, 
for God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship 
him in Spirit and in truth. No form of outward image must 
be reverenced, argues our Lord's Apostle, for we are God's off- 
spring, and must adore him therefore in that spirit which from 
him has sprung. 

But further : — You find St. Peter also harmonizing on this 



GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 



25 



point with his divine Lord, and with Moses, and with Paul. 
In his Second Epistle, (i. 4) he tells us that for this end there 
are " given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that 
by these we may become partakers of the divine nature^ But 
by the divine nature, in this passage, cannot be meant the 
Essence of God as the Ground of all being, the Infinite, the 
Absolute, the Eternal ; but only the Nature of God as he is 
Spirit, — intelligence and will ; to full conformity with which 
Nature our spirit, as being itself intelligence and will, may 
be raised up by grace. In the divine nature, in this sense, 
we were made : from the divine nature, in this sense, we have 
fallen away ; to the divine nature, in this sense, it is the one 
grand object of the Gospel, through the communication of the 
Spirit of God by Christ, to raise us up again. Even as St. 
Paul writes to the Ephesians, (iv. 24) " Put on the new man, 
which after God^'' according to his image and nature, " is 
created in righteousness and true holiness." But if to be 
partakers of God's nature, to be renewed after His image, is 
to be created in righteousness and true holiness, then is the 
Nature of God to be conceived by us as that pure intelligence 
and will^ in which true holiness consists. 

Once more. How strikingly — I had almost said how aw- 
fully — is this truth presented to us in the declarations of our 
Lord to his disciples concerning Himself — the man, Christ 
Jesus, — when he said (John xiv. 7, 9) " If ye had known me 
ye should have known my Father also : and from henceforth 
ye know him and have seen him." " He that hath seen me 
hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou then. Shew us the 
Father ? " What, then, had the disciples seen ? What did 
they know ? They had seen the spirit of Jesus as breathed 
forth in his words, and energizing in his deeds. They had 
known the mind and heart and will of their divine companion 
and friend. And in that spirit of Jesus, as thus manifested to 

c 



26 GOD THE ORIGINAL OP ALL INTELLIGENCE, 

them, our Lord calls on them to recognize the manifestation 
of God himself; in the perfectness of those qualities which 
belong to spirit — his benevolence, and his justice, and his 
energy, and his self-consistency, and his holiness in all its 
fulness, — there they were to behold, not indeed the Essence 
but the Nature, of the Father himself. But this spirit of 
Jesus was his human spirit, reflecting in its fulness the di- 
vine — the perfect image of the Deity which dwelt within it. 
And therefore from the human spirit, conceived as liberated 
from all limitation, and purified of all corruption, and raised 
up to all perfection, we are to conceive the mode of being of 
the Divine. In proportion as we conceive of unseen spirit, 
free, and pure, and perfect, we conceive justly, though not 
adequately, of God, The Spirit. And therefore, to have seen 
and known manifested spirit, as the disciples saw and knew it 
in the person of Jesus, the God-man, thus actually free, and 
pure, and perfect, was indeed to have seen the Father himself. 
Nor is it in such specific passages only, but through the 
whole texture of Holy Writ, that this great truth is exhibited 
to us. Hence all its modes of speaking of God in language 
proper to man. Hence its attributing to Him perception, 
deliberation, feeling, moral complacency and displacency, de- 
termination, will. The whole Bible is to us an offence with- 
out this conception of God as Spirit. We must stumble 
at every step we take in going through it. We must admit 
the objections of its enemies. We must concede the An- 
thropomorphism, or assimilating God to man, which they 
charge against it as a delusive representation of God. 
Whereas the real fact is that just this Anthropomorphism 
is the only form in which the true Idea of God can he conveyed 
to man; so that immediately you quit your hold of this you 
plunge into the bottomless abyss, the " formless infinite," of 
Pantheism, Fatalism, Atheism. The sharpest wits, the sub- 



GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 27 

tlest minds, which think to strip our notions of God, of this 
Anthropomorphism, give to us in its stead, not a more spi- 
ritual but a more physical conception. Instead of elevating 
they degrade the Deity; and for the grand Ideal of intel- 
ligent Mind they substitute nothing better than the Ideal of 
an unintelligent world. Phytomorphism, — the assimilating 
God to vegetable nature, to a growth, a germ, developing 
itself indeed with an organic order and beauty, but without 
consciousness and without volition — this is the base concep- 
tion which they offer us for the God of the Bible, the Spirit, 
in whose image we were made — whose offspring we are — to 
whose nature we may become conformed — who Himself was 
manifested in the flesh ! 

Such then is the Scripture authentication of this most 
reasonable Idea of God. See in the third place how indis- 
pensable this Idea is — how necessary that we hold it fast 
in order to our preservation from the deadliest errors concerning 
God, 

First, from the insolence of Atheism, For it is not the 
absolute denial of God's existence, which constitutes this 
fearful evil, but the so looking on Him as if He were not an 
intelligent, conscious. Being, taking cognizance of what is 
passing in the world, and judging on the conduct of his 
creatures. " The fool hath said in his heart," writes David, 
" there is no God." And what means he by so saying ? To 
deny a First Cause? To reject God as the Ground of all 
being ? No I But to deny the intelligent superintendence of 
this First Cause over the world. To reject the notion of his 
seeing, judging, punishing the evil which is done therein. 
You see this in the Tenth Psalm. " The wicked, through the 
pride of his countenance, will not seek after God : God is not 
in all his thoughts. Thy judgments are far above out of his 

c 2 



28 GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

sight. He hath said m his heart, I shall not be moved ; for I 
shall never be in adversity. He hath said in his heart God hath 
forgotten: he hideth his face : he will never see it. Wherefore 
doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, 
Thou will not require it." O this indeed is that practical 
Atheism, through which thousands perish. This is that fatal 
unbelief which deadens the conscience of multitudes who yet 
acknowledge the marks of Deity in the works of nature ; yea 
admire the sublime idea of an universal Spirit pervading all 
things ; but who have never cherished the aw^ful conviction 
that this great Spirit is no mere vital breath diffused through- 
out the world, (the too common notion of Spirit, and of the 
spirituality of God,) but is a real, substantial, intelligent, 
thinking, willing, judging, acting Spirit: even as the spirit that 
dwells within your body, that thinks and feels and judges and 
determines, in yourself — that is your self, your only real and 
permanent self, distinct entirely from the animal life which 
animates your corporeal frame, and from the animal breath 
which with the dissolution of that frame exhales into thin air ! 
Whence is it that men feel so little of their responsibility to 
God, but from the disbelief, or the neglect, of this great 
truth ? W^hence is it that what they dare not do, or even say, 
before the view of a human spirit like their own, because they 
would blush to be observed, condemned, abhorred, by that 
real Being — that this, I say, they will do, and this will think, 
when no human eye is fixed on them, no human retribution 
to be feared ; but just because they do not feel that God is 
such a Spirit — such a real, observing, judging being, — as 
their fellow man ? — because they say " The Loi-d shall not 
see, neither doth the God of Jacob regard it /" But O the 
full, convincing answer of the Psalmist to such a fatal error ! 
" Understand ye brutish among the people, and ye fools when 
will ye be wise ? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? 
He that formed the eye shall he not see ? He that teacheth 



GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 29 

man knowledge, shall not He know ?" The very powers 
with which He has endowed our spirit assure us that He 
must possess these powers in all their perfectness in His 
own ! O then to feel responsible to God as you feel respon- 
sible to man I To quail before his face, as you would quail 
before the face of man ! Though no Mind look at you 
through the imperfect medium of a human eye, God's glance 
is as ten thousand eyes ! " It is quick and powerful, and 
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing 
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow^, 
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart : 
neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight ; 
but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with 
whom we have to do !" Heb. iv. 12, 13. 

But next, this contemplation of God as Spirit is necessary 
to preserve us from the heartlessness of Fatalism. There are 
many who venture not, with any distinctness, to deny the in- 
telligent character of God — who will regard Him as putting 
forth mind in the contrivance of the universe, and in the won- 
drous adjustment of its several parts, and in the impressing on 
it the laws by which it is controulled — but yet lose out of sight 
one of the most essential attributes of spirit, in the sense 
in which our Lord calls God a Spirit, which attribute is Will ; 
not simply Intelligence, but Will ; not simply a devising, but 
an energetic Mind ; not merely the impressing of a law upon 
the universe, but the free^ unshackled, independent exercise of 
his own judgment and determinations, and acts, with reference 
to the daily course of men and things throughout this universe. 
And thus, if they have really any definite notion of God at all, 
it is that of the ancient Stoics, that God has done his work — 
has thrown round every thing the charm of a divine necessity 
— has set agoing, according to unalterable laws, the vast ma- 
chine of the world — and now reposes in a dignified serenity, 
while all things take their destined course. 



30 GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

But what, then, follows from this ? this, to some vain ima- 
ginations so elevated a notion of God — a notion which does 
honour to his sovereignty, and sets him in impassible compo- 
sure far above the petty troubles of this lower sphere ? What 
follows, but just the destruction of all practical belief of God. 
For all practical belief of God depends, not on the bare ac- 
knowledgment of a First Designer and Provider, and Law- 
giver, but also on a Law-maintainer — keeping up a constant 
connection between Himself and all related to Him. The 
idea of spirit, in our humanity, is the idea of Will — not merely 
of listless reverie, but energetic Will. But " God is a Spirit/' 
says our Lord. Therefore the very essence of God's nature is 
Will : intelligent, wise, good, just, holy, but ever active Will. 
And because God's nature is Will, there is, there can be, no 
such thing as blind necessity, an iron fate, an irresistible me- 
chanism of things, and circumstances, and events, grinding its 
harsh relentless course, in one eternal round, above the con- 
troul of man, beneath the controul of God I 

Yet just this denial of this ever-energizing Will of God has 
been the fruitful source of all the heartless scepticism in the 
world. Hence the disbelief of miracles ; as if God could 
never interpose in his own world ! Hence the questioning of 
Providence ; as if petty events could not be objects of his 
care I Hence the discouragement of prayer ; " as if, forsooth, 
the cries of human importunity could change the purposes of 
the Unchangeable I " Hence the cutting off, in a word, the 
connection between God in heaven and the things of earth, 
and the crushing of all faith, dependence, hope, in a living, 
present, condescending, and prayer-hearing God I " What 
must be, must be!" **We must just submit!" "Let all 
things take their course I " " Each man must endure his 
fate!" O, blessed be God, that we know better than this I 
O, blessed be God that it is written, " Whatsoever the Lord 



GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 31 

pleaseth that doth He, in heaven, and in earth, in the sea, and 
all deep places." Ps. cxxxv. 6. " The very hairs of your 
head are all numbered." Matt. x. 30. " The Lord will regard 
the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their prayer." 
Ps. cii. 1 7. " Verily there is a reward for the righteous, 
verily there is a God ihdXjudgeth the earth I " Ps. Iviii. 11. 

But once more : The belief of God as a Spirit is necessary 
to preserve us from the visionariness of Pantheism. Pan- 
theism is the misbelief that as all things have their being in 
God (Acts xvii. 28), God's being also is in all things. It 
confounds the uncreated essence with created existence. It 
makes the world but an expansion of God, or God but the 
impersonation of the world. And thus it destroys all living 
conviction of the individual personality of God, and either 
identifies Him with men and things, or, at the most, distin- 
guishes Him from them only as the universal breath, the 
divine life which sustains and actuates them. And the mis- 
chief is, that just this view, which (for extremes meet) leads 
to nothing short of Atheism, is pleaded for from the alleged 
desire to maintain the spirituality of the divine nature I and to 
free our conceptions of it from all material and corporeal 
incrustations, all human limitations and infirmities I Its advo- 
cates tell us, that to conceive of God in the forms of sensible 
conception is to degrade him to the level of sense ; and they 
overlook all the while that the analogy between God and man, 
which our Lord insists on, is not an analogy between the 
Invisible and what is visible in man ; but between the Invisible 
and what is equally invisible in ourselves — the sole point of 
comparison being the realy intelligent, and self -determining, sub" 
stantiality, as of the spirit of man, so also of God the Spirit, in 
whose image man was made. 

And yet how readily is this misapprehension indulged, and 
God's intelligence, yea, reality, sacrificed, in the effort to save 



32 GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

his spirituality. A single instance will illustrate this ; an in- 
stance which I draw from Abbott's popular work^ ^' The Cor- 
ner Stone," because that book bears all the marks of a well- 
intentioned, earnest mind. His object in the first chapter is to 
do away the " many false and absurd impressions which come 
up with men from childhood, and cling to them in riper years," 
as if heaven were a special place in the heavens, and God's 
seat a material throne, and God himself a " visible potentate" 
thereon. And in order to combat this notion of God's visi^ 
hility^ he destroys the Idea of his personality ! and talks of 
Him — the Ground of all being, and the Original of all Intel- 
ligence — as " the wide-spread munificent power, pervading all 
space, and existing in all time ! " Nay, in order to support 
the Idea of God's spirituality, which he seems to consider as 
simply the negation of corporality and visibility, not as the as- 
sertion of intelligent will, he makes shipwreck of the all-im- 
portant truth of His essentially distinct existence from the world! 
" God is every where," he says. " The Deity is the all-per- 
vading power, which lives and acts throughout the whole. He 
is not a separate existence, having a special habitation in any 
part of it." And see how with such a volatilizing of the Idea 
of God his very language necessarily alters, and from using 
for the Deity the pronoun appropriate to persons, " he," he 
slips, perhaps unconsciously, into that which is fit only for 
things, '' it." '' If," he says, " there were any quarter of the 
universe more magnificent than the rest, with a visible poten- 
tate seated there, that potentate could not be God. It might 
be a manifestation of the supreme power, but it would not be, 
and could not be, that power itself, which from its very na- 
,ture is universal in its presence." Yea, and this language, fit 
only for things, continues to present itself even when the great 
work of creation is spoken of ! " In the structure of a solar 
system the Deity, invisible itself, acts out its mighty power 



GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 83 

and the unerring perfection of its intellectual skill. At the 
same time, while it is carrying on these mighty movements it 
is exercising, in a very different scene its untiring industry and 
unrivalled taste ! " And again ; " The Deity is the all- pervad- 
ing, universal, and invisible power ^ And " this universal 
Essence must display to us its nature, by acting itself out in 
a thousand places, by such manifestations of itself as it wishes 
us to understand !" Alas, for the near approach to blasphemy, 
in this language concerning this wondrous " it !" Is this a 
lecture of Fichte^ or of Schelling, or of Hegel, that we are 
reading ? Can anything more thoroughly Spinozistic be culled 
from Strauss himself? Compare with the above his language, 
and point out, if you can, the difference. " God is the essence 
pervading all existence, the life animating all things living, the 
Spirit actuating all spirits, the principle and act of thought in- 
cluded in all thinking." And again : " The personahty of 
God must be conceived not as an individual, but an universal 
personality : and instead of personifying for ourselves the 
Absolute, we must learn to conceive of him as that which goes 
on to infinity personifying itself." * 

Can anything show to us more clearly than this instance 
does, the strong necessity of our forming to ourselves accurate — 
that is, scriptural — conceptions of the spirituality of God ? We 
have not here worldly or imaginative poets talking in their 

* It is refreshing to turn from such passages to the wisdom of a Socrates. 
" Socrates alone," says Bishop J. B. Sumner, " declares the dependence of 
matter upon mind without confounding their existence. So that his supreme 
Deity is not a mechanical agent, but a separate being. This superiority con- 
sists in the correct conception which he formed of the personality of Hue 
Deity; whose actual superintendence of human affairs, and intimacy with 
human actions, was his favourite theme. ' To his solid understanding,' says 
Xenophon, iv. 1, 'it appeared absurd to allow to the mind of man the power 
of governing the body, and to deny to the Mind of the universe the power of 
ruling the world.' " — Records of Creation, i. 197. 204. 

c5 



34 GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

mystic language of what they do not understand,* but we 
have one whose mind is given to the subject, who demands 
from us earnestly our full attention to it, because " it is not an 
easy one," and who labours with all the energy of deliberate 
conviction to bring young persons " to try and dispel the illu- 
sion" which has cleaved to them from their childhood, and 
" thoroughly fix in their mind, so that it shall never leave 
them, that the Deity is the all-pervading universal Power!" 
No I God is not a Power merely, any more than your spirit, 
Reader, and mine, is a Power merely ! God is not diflPused 
throughout all being, himself no being, any more than your 
spirit is diffused throughout the body which it actuates ! But 
God is substance, even as your spirit is substance, — not visible, 
indeed, not '^ form and colour," not material, (what true phi- 

* I refer not here to the heathen poets only, but to the equally Pantheistic 
lines of Poets bearing the Christian name. Take the single passage from 
Virgil, (iEn. vi. 724 — 731,) as given by Dryden, and compare with it the 
rhapsodies of Pope and Thomson : — wherein lies the distinction ? Virgil says, 

" Know first, that heaven, and earth's compacted frame. 
And flowing waters, and the starry flame, 
And both the radiant lights, one common soul 
Inspires and feeds — and animates the whole. 
This active mind, infixsed through all the space, 
Unites and mingles with the mighty mass. 
Hence men and beasts the breath of life obtain, 
And birds of air, and monsters of the main. 
Th' ethereal vigour is in all the same. 
And every soul is fill'd with equal flame." 
Pope writes, (Essay on Man, Ep. 1.) 

" All are but parts of one stupendous whole. 
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul ; 
That chang'd through all, and yet in all the same, 
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame ; 
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze. 
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees ; 
Lives through all life, extends through all extent ; 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent." 



GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 35 

losopher ever thought these necessary attributes of substance?) 
but yet inteUigentj conscious, self-determining ; and while he 
sends forth his sustaining and all-actuating power throughout 
the universe, remaining in Himself, the One, real, personal 
God I 

Such is the necessity of this Scriptural view of God, for 
our preservation from the deadliest errors concerning Him. 
Consider, lastly, how equally indispensable it is for the nourish- 
ment of those devout emotions which constitute the essence of jnetf/ 
towards Him. 

Those emotions are easily summed up. They are readily 
known. For they are but the transfer to the Uncreated Spirit 
of those affections of the mind and heart and will which we 
have already learned to exercise, in a lower degree, towards 
the created spirits whom we mix with day by day. In the 

And Thomson is scarcely better : (Hymn at the end of the Seasons) 
" These as they change, Ahnighty F.ither, these 
Are hut the varied God! The rolling year 

Is fall of thee 

Since God is ever present, ever felt. 

In the wild waste, as in the city fall ; 

And where he vital breathes there must be joy." 

How essentially different the truthful poetry of Milton, in the Hymn of 
Adam and Eve, (Paradise Lost, b. v.) Instead of deifying Nature, they 
worship God. Instead of dissolving the Deity in his works, they adore him 
as the Workmaster. The world is not Him, but His. It is not the sub- 
stance, but the reflection, of the only Fair and Good. 

" These are thy glorious works. Parent of Good, 
Almighty ! Thine this universal frame, 
Thus wondrous fair ; Thyself how wondrous then ! 
Unspeakable, who sitst above these Iteavens 
To us invisible, or dimly seen 
In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare 
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine." 



36 GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

school of the family are those feelings first awakened which 
God calls for towards himself. But that which has had its 
birth in our relations towards Intelligences like ourselves, can 
never be transferred but to a Being conceived as an Intelli- 
gence like ourselves. The object towards whom their full 
developement shall take place may be infinitely above us, but 
still he must be, in this sense, similar to us. For the essence 
of the religious feeling is moral ; — not mere trembling before 
physical power, or submission to physical necessity, or recog- 
nition of the presence of a physical Essence ; — but Reverence 
for the majesty — Communion with the sentiments— Acquies- 
cence in the determinations, of an intelligent moral Will, 

For what is the highest style of Reverence ? That with 
which we bend and cower before the untamed might of mate- 
rial nature? — the physical sublime? — or that with which we 
bow with elevating admiration before the quiet grandeur of a 
lofty Mind ? — the moral sublime ? And what then is the only 
legitimate feeling towards the great Supreme but just this 
higher style of reverence ? Such as Job felt when he asked, 
" Whence then cometh wisdom, and where is the place of 
understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, 
and kept close from the fowls of the air ? God uyiderstandeth 
the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof; for He 
looketh to the ends of the earthy and seeth under the whole 
heaven!" Job xxviii. 20 — 24. Such, again, as Isaiah ex- 
pressed when he said " Who hath directed the Spirit of the 
Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him ? With whom 
took he counsel;, and who instructed him, and taught him in 
the path of judgment and taught him knowledge, and shewed 
him the way of understanding? Behold all nations are before 
Him as nothing, and they are counted less than nothing and 
vanity I" Isaiah xl. 13 — 15. Such, again, as Paul breathed 
forth in rapturous adoration when he cried, " O the depth of 



GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 37 

the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God^ how un- 
searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out ! 
For who hath known the mind of the Lord ? or who hath been 
his counsellor ? or who hath first given unto him and it shall 
be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through 
him, and to him are all things ; to whom be glory for ever, 
Amen!" Rom. xi. 33— 36. 

And O the feelings of Communion .which the devout spirit 
can enjoy with such a God, who is thus Spirit ! The presence 
of God ! What is this ? Is it that only which pervades the 
material substances of the universe— which is the power of all 
powers — the life of all life ? Nay, but it is the presence of 
His mind to our mind- — or rather of our mind to His — the 
sublime conviction, — not that God is diflfused through all 
things, but that all things, in their boundless range, and their 
minutest particles, and their slightest acts, are present to God ! 
That His ken takes in all objects — his mind is cognizant of 
all thoughts — his heart embraces in its paternal vastness every 
living thing I Such a conviction as David expresses in the 
139th Psalm, not of an all pervading breath, but of an all- 
present mind, who wheresoever we turn is there to us, because 
we are there to Him. " O Lord thou hast searched me and 
known me ; thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising ; 
thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my 
path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 
Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? and whither shall I flee 
from thy presence ? How precious are thy thoughts unto me, 
O God, how great is the sum of them ! " 

And what is the Submissiveness which this view of God 
produces? Is it a forced reluctant resignation to inexorable 
fate? Is it the throwing ourselves, with a despair which 
makes a merit of necessity, before the terrible march of 
ponderous power, as the relentless Juggernaut of the uni- 



38 GOD THE ORIGINAL OF ALL INTELLIGENCE. 

verse ? Or is it not the acquiescence of a mind in the grave 
determinations of a kindred mind ; the homage rendered by 
imperfect knowledge to unerring wisdom ; the surrender of a 
will whose impulses we cannot trust, to the appointments of a 
greater, wiser, better Will, which, even when we cannot under- 
stand we justify — when we cannot see to be intelligible we 
believe to be intelligent ? Such a submissiveness as Job felt 
when he said " Touching the Almighty we cannot, indeed, 
find him out. But nevertheless he is excellent in power, in 
judgment, and in plenty of justice, and he will not afflict ; men 
do therefore fear him.'' Such as the Psalmist felt when he said 
" I know O Lord that thi/ judgments are right, and that thou 
in faithfulness hast afflicted me." Such as Jesus has given 
us the perfect model of, when he closed his awful struggle in 
the garden with the quiet acquiescence of satisfied adoration, 
" Nevertheless not my will but thine be done ! " 



39 



CHAPTER III. 

GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 

We have seen that a due consideration of the world in 
which we live will aflford a moral demonstration of a One, 
real, unchanging", all-originating Being, as the ground of all 
existence — and that a knowledge of ourselves will force upon 
us the conviction that this Being has also an intelligent and 
moral Nature, as the Original and Archetype of all intelli- 
gence, "the only wise God." And this completes the Idea 
included in the first confession of our Creed, " I believe in 
God." 

But this God we go on to acknowledge as " The Father." 
We recognize not only his Being, and his Nature, but his 
Character as it is displayed in his relation to the world — his 
Character as the Author of all the good which in this 
world we see and feel. 

For this term, " Father," expresses the disposition which 
the Great Supreme possesses and exerts towards that universe 
of which he is the ground. We know already what is such a 
disposition from our own experience of the relation which that 
term points out. We know the heart of a parent towards his 
children. We feel that it includes an all-beneficent Love — 
an all-providing Wisdom — an all-controuUing Care. And 
Reason and Scripture equally tell us that in the similar 
relation which God bears to all things there must be — there 



40 GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 

is — a similar Disposition exercised by Him in all its per- 
fectness. 

Consider, then, First, the all-heneficent hove which God as 
the Father of all things must possess. From the same ana- 
logy which obliges us to conceive of Him as Mind and Will, we 
cannot but regard Him as benevolent and beneficent in mind 
and will. Our own spirit is the faint resemblance of His. 
But even of our own spirit, in all its imperfection, yea corrup- 
tion, Love is an essential element. And specially, of the 
exercises of that spirit towards our children, — springing from 
our own being, and similar to our own nature, — w^ho knows 
not that paternal Love is the very life ? So also, therefore, 
must paternal Love be the essential ground, the vital principle 
of all the thoughts and ways of God towards every living 
thing. You see this conviction shew itself even in the dim 
imaginings of untutored nature. The Indian calls the great 
Being, "the good Spirit." You find it forming for you the 
distinctive title of this great Being in your own tongue; — 
"God" means "the Good One,"* And Scripture certifies 
its truth. The one most essential attribute of God's cha- 
racter, — which he possesses as no lower being can possess — 
which forms his very nature — is this paternal Love. " There is 
none good," says our blessed Lord, " but One : that is God." 
Matt. xix. 1 7. " God," says his Apostle, " is Love." 1 John iv. 8. 

But all Benevolence is essentially communicative. The 

* Luther makes a similar remark : Cat. Mag. p. 409. " Hinc adeo est, 
quod mea fert opinio, quod nos Germani usque a majoribus nostris (pragcla- 
rius, profecto, et pulclirius, quam ulla alia lingua) Deum (Gott) a bonitatis 
vocabulo {Gut) sermone nobis vemaculo vocamus, quippe qui fons perennis 
sit, et perpetuo scaturiens, affluentissimis bonis exundans, et a quo omne, quic- 
quid uspiam boni est et dicitur emanat." And the Scholiast on Odyss. 8. 325 
{Qiol luTYi^is Ikmv, i. e. aya^^y), offers a similar derivation for the Greek 
term ©soj. "'Eov, to ayxdev, ^uffuvirai.) uip" oS kcc) esoj." 



GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 41 

very notion of love implies an object towards whom the feel- 
ing is exercised. And exuberance of love must find or make 
for itself a multiplicity of objects. Therefore the divine be- 
nevolence burst forth in the creation of this world, through 
which to difiiise its blessedness. We can imagine no other 
reason for creation but the overflowing of God's love — the 
self- communicating energy of goodness, which widens out the 
sphere of its exertion that it may therewith widen the domain 
of bliss. " The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." 
Ps. xxxiii. 5. 

And thus the Ground of all things becomes, in the very act 
of willing their existence, the Benefactor also of all things — 
pouring out over them the refreshing stream of his benevo- 
lence, and making them " very good." " He has not left him- 
self without witness" says St. Paul — he has sufficiently proved 
to us, as his Being, so also his disposition and character — 
" in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruit- 
ful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Acts 
xiv. 1 7. All the lustre spread over the smiling face of earth 
— all the life teeming in its most solitary regions — all the pro- 
vision made for its innumerable tribes — proclaim with one 
voice, " good and gracious is the Lord." — " The Lord is good 
to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." Ps. 
cxlv. 9. " Thou openest thine hand and they are filled with 
good ! " Ps. civ. 28. 

And what then shall we say to the mental blessings which 
he has communicated to his choicest creature, man ? What, 
to the rich patrimony of thought and feeling and volition 
which he has endowed him with ? To know our happiness — 
to reflect upon the pleasure we enjoy, encreases it a thousand 
fold : and therefore He has given us a mind to look round 
upon the world, and inward on ourselves, and to talk with our- 



42 GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 

selves about the happiness we see and feel — to tell ourselves 
that He who sheds it over us is good ! 

And O what an enhancement of our bliss is this ! We 
cannot thoroughly enjoy a gift unless we know and thank the 
Giver. The mind travels on from the unconscious blessing to 
find another mind that shall be conscious of our enjoyment of 
that blessing, and pleased with the gratitude which we would 
render to him. And this, God has provided for. He has 
given us faculties to know himself, the Giver of all good 
things — to recognize his hand in the creations of his might — 
to admire his wisdom — to feel his love — to adore his con- 
descension. 

And not only has he given us faculties for such a recog- 
nition. To those faculties he has revealed himself. Not only 
indirectly, by his works and the conclusions which our Rea- 
son draws from them — but directly, by his manifestations to 
the mind of holy men, through whom he has spoken to us 
" even as a man speaketh to his friend." 

Nor this alone, — through this same channel he invites and 
encourages us to speak to Him ! to approach him as our Be- 
nefactor — to offer to him the sacrifice of thanksgiving — to 
pour into his gracious ear the full stream of our gratitude, — 
and to cry to him in lowly adoration, " Because thy loving- 
kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee ! Thus 
will I bless thee while I live ! My soul shall be satisfied as 
with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with 
joyful lips 1 " 

And here then is the character in which St. James exhibits 
to us God when he describes Him as ''the Father of lights, 
with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning, from 
whom cometh down every good and perfect gift." Jam. i. 17. 
The influence of the heavenly bodies on this earth was a fa- 
vourite topic of the heathen religions. The stars which shed 



GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 43 

their gentle radiance through the darkness of the night — the 
moon walking in brightness — above all, the beneficent sun, 
scattering life as well as light over the world, — these were the 
objects of secret reverence, nay of open adoration ; to these, 
men, in their ignorant devoutness, ascribed the various bless- 
ings they enjoyed. " Men who were vain by nature," says the 
Author of the book of Wisdom, " who were ignorant of God, 
and could not, out of the good things that are seen know him 
that is, did not by considering the works acknowledge the 
Workmaster, but deemed the circle of the stars and the lights 
of heaven to be the gods which govern the world; with whose 
beauty if they being delighted took them to be gods, let them 
know how much better the Lord of them is ; for the First 
Author of beauty hath created them." As the Sun to this 
lower world, so is the Father of all lights to the universe. As 
the earth owes to that material luminary the warmth which 
fertilizes it ; the splendour which cheers it ; the seasons, and 
days, and years which diversify it ; the laws which regulate it — 
so, as the Sun of suns, the Light inscrutable of which those 
orbs are but the faint reflection, the Father of the blessings 
of which these are only the distributers, the constant and un- 
changing essence of that beneficence of which these are only 
the often changing, often obscured, uncertain agents, the Scrip- 
tures point us up to God. God, himself all light, in whom 
there is no darkness at all — and pouring abroad his all-benefi- 
cent Love, in countless streams of light and life, throughout 
the universe. " With thee is the fountain of life I And in thy 
light shall we see light ! " Ps. xxxvi. 9. 

But now go on to consider. Secondly, the all-providing 
Wisdom which God, as the Father of all things, exercises 
towards them. We look into the world, and we do not merely 
see scattered instances of goodness — we see a systematic prin- 



L 



44 GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 

ciple of goodness every where at work. There is a wisdom of 
benevolence. There is design. There is an end to which 
things tend, — to which they are evidently formed to tend, — 
and that end is their good ; according to the nature and sus- 
ceptibilities of each particular being, — their good. Amidst 
all the seeming anomalies in the actual working of things ; 
amidst the too real evidence of corruption and disorganization; 
of nothing can it be said that the design is not benevolent — 
from nothing can we gather any other conclusion than that the 
purpose of the Designer was its good. 

And what a subject is this, as evidence of God's fatherly 
care I That all the arrangement, the contrivance, the tendency 
to an end (and that a good one) which the world presents to 
us, is only a transcript of the previously existing mind and 
purpose of God — a working out of the eternal counsel of his 
essentially benevolent Will. To see that all things tend to a 
certain end in which they find their consummation, is one 
thing. To go back from this, and believe that all things 
derive this tendency from a pre-conceived and predetermined 
purpose^ out of which purpose sprang their very commence- 
ment, is another. The one is the admission even of the god- 
less Pantheist or Necessarian, who confesses that the tendency 
and workings both of nature and events exhibit the develope- 
ment of the Idea of good : but who there stops. The other 
is the belief of the Christian Theist, who can form to himself 
no notion of an Idea without an intelligent Being whose Idea 
it is, and through whose conscious purpose that Idea is 
wrought out into act. And why does he hold fast this belief? 
Because just this conclusion is that to which he comes, and 
finds that he correctly comes, with reference to similar pheno- 
mena in the daily intercourse of life. We see before us the 
workings of human action^ as well as of things and circum- 
stances. We observe such action tending to certain ends, 



GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 45 

adapting, combining, regulating itself towards the attainment 
of those ends. And what do we infer from these appearances 
of systematic operation? Do we absurdly talk of the self- 
regulation of these acts? Or of the inherent disposition of 
the members of the body which have been employed in them, 
to exert themselves in such a way, to such results ? Or do 
we not immediately and unavoidably reason onward from the 
things designed to a Designer — from human actions to a 
human Agent — from the end accomplisheu Oy those actions to 
the intelligent purpose of that Agent — and from the degree of 
method manifested in those actions, to the degree of intelli- 
gence of that agent, whose pre-conception, pre-determination, 
and pre- volition have produced the workings of those bodily 
members, and the results which by those workings are accom- 
plished in the world ? And what other evidence either of the 
being, or the personality, of human Agents, have we but this ? 
Who knows anything of his fellow men, but from their external 
manifestations ? Who knows anything of the intelligence of 
his fellow men, but from the marks of intelligence visible in 
those manifestations ? Who knows that there is besides him- 
self any other real, thinking, purposing and willing being at 
all, but from the outward marks of such reality, thought, pur- 
pose, will, which in the phenomena of life are manifested? 
And if then the phenomena of human action bring us unavoid- 
ably to the recognition of a Being as the Agent of those phe- 
nomena, which Agent we have never seen — of whose existence 
and whose nature^ and whose character we have no evidence 
but in those phenomena ; what shall all the similar phenomena 
in the world, and all the similar marks of wise contrivance and 
design which those phenomena exhibit to us, — what shall 
these bring us to but to the recognition of a greater Being, as 
the Agent of those phenomena ; though such an Agent no one 
hath seen, nor can see, and even though we had for His exist- 



46- GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 

ence, nature, character, no other proof but that which, in the 
systematic workings of this wondrously adapted world, is fur- 
nished to us ? As sure as we beheve that there are men, so 
surely must we believe there is a God. As surely as we re- 
cognize intelligence, design and purpose in men, so surely 
must we recognize similar intelligence, design and purpose in 
God. And as surely as we see a good end, as the object of 
the things designed, so surely must we acknowledge in the 
Designer himself the quality of goodness — of pre-disposing 
Love — of all-providing Wisdom. " O Lord how manifold are 
thy works I in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is 
full of thy riches I " Ps. civ. 24. " The Lord of hosts is won- 
derful in counsel, and excellent in working." Isa. xxviii. 29. 
" He hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath 
stretched out the heavens by his discretion." Jer. x. 12. 
" The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by under- 
standing hath he estabhshed the heavens. By his knowledge 
the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew ! " 
Prov. iii. 1 9, 20. 

Observe now, in the Third place, how God is set before us 
as the Father of his universal family, as exercising towards it 
an all-conti'oulling Care. 

It is not in things or circumstances, taken by themselves 
alone, that a benevolent purpose is discernible, but more espe- 
cially in their combination and co-working. And what strikes 
us in the world of nature and events is just this combination 
and co-working, — not merely their original contrivance, but 
their hourly maintained co-operation — by means of which, 
results impossible through any particidar thing, at any given 
time, are brought out by the harmonious working of a vast 
system of things through a long course of time. Nothing 
results from the separate virtue of any one thing or circum- 



GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 47 

stance, but from the bringing together, the accurate, apt adjust- 
ment, of many things and many circumstances ; — things^ too, 
often in themselves apparently discordant, and circumstances 
often apparently counteractive of each other. Facts, for ex- 
ample, occur in history whose results reach manifestly beyond 
— nay often contrary to, — the purpose of the particular Actors 
in them, and yet at the same time have such evident design in 
them, are so connected with something that has gone before, 
and so productive of something which comes after, that A 
Purposer, by whom they have been disposed and brought 
about, we cannot shut our eyes to. They cannot be chance. 
They cannot be mere mechanical result. They must be the 
arrangement of a conscious and all-regulating Mind, which 
has intended — nay prepared — them, long before. Take only 
the great fact of Christ's appearing. It was when " the ful- 
ness of times was come ! " It was just at the point of time in 
which all the lines of prophecy concentred. It was just in 
the age and state of the world when separate nations had 
begun to lose themselves in the all-absorbing influence of 
Rome — when separate superstitions had begun to totter under 
the weight of their own decay — when the minds of multitudes 
were awakened to enquiry, and therewith their consciences 
were roused to anxiety ; and all the strong necessities of their 
moral nature, the need of pardon for guilt, deliverance from 
corruption, power for virtue, began to be most pressingly felt. 
It was when the longings of God's ancient people were 
stretched out to their extremest intensity. It was when the 
universal sigh of a sin-oppressed world was breathed forth 
with the deepest earnestness. And then Christ came I And 
were not these adjustments the work of a presiding Mind? 
And could this collocation and combination of things and cir- 
cumstances, have taken place but through the all-controulling 
Care of One who saw the end from the beginning, and from 



48 GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 

ancient times the things that were not yet done : saying, My 
counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure ? 

Now, just this controuUing all things according to a pre-con- 
ceived design, just this actual working out by paternal Care, 
what had been willed by paternal Love, and contrived by 
paternal Wisdom, is what the Scriptures represent to us under 
that favourite image of a Father by which they indicate the 
character of God towards all things. The employment of 
this image, to this end, is frequent and striking. It is used to 
assure us of the watchful superintendence and controul of God 
over all things, as similar to the Care of a Parent over his 
children — of a Householder over his family — of a Sovereign 
over his people. 

Even as a Parent over his children, so God watches over all 
things for good. How touchingly is this assured to us by 
our blessed Lord, when he warns his disciples against unne- 
cessary care concerning their earthly interests, " for i/our 
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these 
things." Matt. vi. 32. He knows your wants. That is 
enough. That so knowing he will provide for them, you may 
confidently trust from the very fact implied in the epithet I 
use — he is your " Father ! " So again, when he encourages 
them to be bold in confessing his name, whatever evils it 
might bring upon them. For, " are not two sparrows sold for 
a farthing ? And one of them shall not fall to the ground 
without your Father.'' Matt. x. 29. And when he would ani- 
mate them to persevering prayer, from the assurance of being 
heard and answered, it is to their own consciousness and feel- 
ings in the parental relation that he refers them, as the all- 
sufficient ground for trusting in God's care. " If ye, being 
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to 
them that ask him ? " Matt. vii. 1 ] . 



GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 49 

But next ; — as a Householder over his family, so God cares 

for all things. How beautiful that comparison in the 104th 

Psalm : " These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give 

them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they 

gather: thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good." 

The Lord, in the midst of his creatures, with a Father's boun- 

tifulness distributing to all^, the food convenient for them ! 

How striking such an image ! How should it encourage us to 

look up to him — to wait on him — with patient expectation, in 

every time of need ! " The eyes of all w^ait on thee," says 

David in another place, " and thou givest them their meat in 

due season : thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire 

of every living thing." And it is in this character of the 

Head of the family, watching over its interests, providing for 

its support;, maintaining with authority its order, that the terra 

" Father" is applied by Jeremiah to even the conjugal relation, 

and is employed, like that of " Lord" to indicate the care and 

guardianship which the husband exercises over the wife, and 

the corresponding dependence and reverence which is due 

from the wife to the husband,* Even as the very term 

" Husband " means similarly " Lord and Protector" — expresses 

the relation of the head of the family to all the members of it, 

(and therefore specially to her who is their mistress and 

representative) as the connecting link of the whole community, 

the bond by which they are joined together and kept in, and 

sustained as one. " Husband " is literally '•' Houseband ; " the 

|L band of the house — the encircling girdle which, while it binds 

^Bj^ together^ also binds in, all the members of it. Whence God, 

^^B considered as the Husband of his people, is also called their 

^V Father. For when he has reproved the Jews (Jer. iii. 4) for 

^H having acted towards Him like a wife who has departed from 

^Bher husband, he goes on to express his hope of their repent- 

^^K * Cf. 1 Peter iii. 6. " Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him, Lord." 

I 



50 GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 

ance, by asking, " Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, 
My Father ! Thou art the guide of my youth !" Wilt thou 
not return into the bonds which thou hast broken^ and recog- 
nize in me again the Husband of thy youth * — thy guardian 
friend and Lord ? Yes ! even as the husband to the wife, so is 
the Almighty God to his great family ! " Fear not," says the 
Prophet Isaiah, (liv. 5) '^ for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither 
be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame, for 
thy Maker is thy Husband ; the Lord of Hosts is his name ; 
and thy Redeemer" — thy guardian, whose office it is to attend 
to all thy interests f — " the Holy One of Israel !" 

But then the title of " Father" comprises in its signification 
not superintendence only, and protection, but effectual control. 
Even as « Sovereign over his people, so God controls and 
governs all things for their good. For this title of Father is 
given in Scripture, further, to Kings and Rulers, on this very 
account. Thus the Lord says concerning Eliakim, when he 
intended to make him prime minister in the place of Shebna 
the Scribe, '^ I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen 
him with thy girdle, and I will commit the government into his 
hands, and he shall be a Father unto the ivihabitants of Jerusa- 
lem, and to the house of Judah." Isa. xxii. 21. While it is 
predicted concerning the Messiah, with reference to just this 
all-controlling power which should be put into his hands for 
the fulfilment of his kingly office ; " His name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Fa- 
ther," the King of whose government there should be no end — 
" the Prince of Peace." Isa. ix. 6. And thus, then, he who 
is our God, is in this sense our Father also ! " He sitteth in 
the throne judging right." Ps. ix. 4. " His eyes behold, his 

* Cf. Isaiah liv. 6 : Malachi ii. 14 : Prov. v. 18. 

t "ThyG^oeZ." Thy Protector. Comp. Ruth iii. 13, "Let him. do the 
TiinsmaTi's (the GoeVs) part," and ch. iv. 1 — 13, 



GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 



51 



eyelids try, tlie children of men." Ps. xi. 4. Nothing- in the 
wide domain of nature can take place without his knowledge 
and permission. All things are subordinated to his will. The 
same eternal Mind which is all love towards you, and all care 
for you, is also all authority and control, to carry out that 
love, to exercise effectually that care. Your God is Father, 
Guardian, Friend, Protector, King ! 

And O then what a call is here for us to exercise to- 
w^ards God ^' The Father" all the best alFections of the 
heart — love — gratitude — affiance ! 

For if we get the full conviction that the Ground of all things, 
who is in Nature, Spirit like ourselves, is also in Disposition 
and character our Father, what a warrant is here for admiring 
Love. Jesus demands of us, as the first and great com- 
mandment, "■ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and all thy mind, and all thy soul, and all thy strength." 
But we cannot love a quality — an idea — a being, however real, 
who does not possess a mind and disposition loveahle. Love 
is founded on esteem. And esteem is admiration of character 
and will : not of acts^ not even Qi faculties^ taken alone^ but of 
the disposition of which those acts are the manifestation, the 
Will to which those faculties are made subservient. It is not 
then the Being of God — it is not the doings of God — it is the 
character of God, as the Father of all things, which only we can 
love. And character is personality ; and therefore we can 
love God only as we feel his personality. And I am sure 
if we could analyse that want of love which is exhibited to- 
wards the Author of our being, we should find that much 
of it results from the want of any living conviction of this 
personality of God as the Father of all things — endued with a 
Father's mind, exercising a Father's care, aff'ording a Father's 
protection. Do you^ my reader, thus love God ? Do you 

D 2 



52 GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 

admire him as not merely the greatest, but the best of beings — 
in his perfect moral will, the best of beings ? the good, the 
wise, the holy — whose power would be only terrible, but for its 
subordination to his Fatherly love — whose relation to yourself 
would be only tremendous, but for the assurance of his Fa~ 
therly love ? Remember how Jesus delighted in the recog- 
nition of this character of God — how he exulted in calling the 
Supreme his Father — how he turned to Him repeatedly the 
glance of moral admiration^ rejoicing in the goodness, and the 
wisdom, and the holy sovereignty of his Will. " I thank thee, 
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that having hid these 
things from the wise and prudent, thou hast revealed them 
unto babes ! Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy 
sight I" Matt. xi. 25, 26. "O 7"lghteous Father, the world 
hath not known thee ; but I have known thee, and these have 
known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared to them 
thy name" (thy character) " and will declare it ! " John xvii. 
25, %Q, 

And, then, too, our Gratitude ! How closely is this con- 
nected with the view of God's disposition towards us as our 
Father ! It is not when good is done to us, no one can con- 
jecture why — it is not when good comes to us, as it were, by 
chance, and without intention on the part of the producer of 
that good, — that we can feel gratitude for that good. It is 
only in proportion as we believe the intention on the part of 
the producer to have been the doing us good, that gratitude 
can spring up. Even towards 2, person — towards a fellow-man 
— we feel no gratitude but as we know the disposition of his 
mind towards us. Does the master thank his servant, asks 
our Lord, for acts of mere servile obedience ? I trow not. 
Luke xvii. 9. Acts done for the individual's good and not 
for ours, with purpose and intention for ours, we are not 
grateful for. Gratitude presupposes a Will, and further a 



GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 53 

design and purpose in that Will, to benefit us by its acts. 
And how much more impossible then is it to feel gratitude to 
things — inanimate^, impersonal things ! We may observe all 
manner of Good in unintelligent nature ; we may admire the 
wondrous life pervading all things, and distilling from them, 
as it were, this good; we may avail ourselves with joy of the 
many blessings which by the organic working of this uncon- 
scious life are thrown off upon our path ; but how can we feel 
— who ever thought of feeling ? — Gratitude to the things them- 
selves which thus delight us ? to the organization by which 
they are thrown off? to the life which has distilled them? to 
the nature which men personify as the possessor of that life ? 
No one ! Not even the most imaginative of minds — except 
perhaps on paper ! Even the ever seething warmth of pagan 
idolatry pours forth its gratitude not to things and events, but 
to the gods whom it imagines to be actuating those things, 
and directing those events : to the particular deity of each par- 
ticular blessing ; or to the goddess Nature as the Imperson- 
ation of all things taken together, or the goddess Fortune as 
the Impersonation of all events combined. And would the 
Christian therefore know the jc»rac?/c«/ emotion of a living 
gratitude, he must recognize God in all his blessings ; not talk 
vainly of " nature," — not of " providence" — not of " heaven," 
and " heaven's gifts," but carry up his heart with all its per- 
sonal emotions to adore that personal Father of all mercies, 
who has designed and who provides and orders, all things for 
our good. So shall we indeed " love Him who first loved 
us ! " 

And what shall we say, finally, of Affiance ? Can anything 
require so thorough a conviction of the personal disposition of 
the Being towards whom we exercise it as Affiance ? a dispo- 
sition of paternal goodness, spontaneous, steady, unchange- 
able ? Whence the Apostle James when he would encourage 



54 GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD. 

his readers to trust that no temptation shall be suffered to 
overpower them, does not content himself with representing 
God as the Father of lights from whom comes nothing but 
good and perfect gifts — and with reminding them, moreover, 
that he has neither variableness nor shadow of turning, but 
tells them, further, " of his own will begat he us with the 
word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his 
creatures :" — the Being whom men would charge with bringing 
temptation on you, has the freest and most spontaneous disposi- 
tion of love towards you ; which, having no ground but in his 
own essential benignity, can by no outward influence be 
changed. And who can expect such constancy of beneficence 
from any other source but God ? Are things unchangeable ? 
Is Nature constant ? Are the heavens invariable ? Are men 
to be depended on ? No ! It is only He who is above all things, 
and different from all nature, and higher than the heavens, 
and holier than men, of whom we can say with full affiance, 
" Though my father and my mother forsake me^ yet the Lord 
will take me up." It is only to him who is the same yester- 
day, and to-day, and for ever, that we can cry " Thou art my 
Father, my God, and the Rock of my Salvation /'* 



53 



\ 



CHAPTER IV. 

GOD THE LORD OF ALL POWER. 

There are many subjects in the word of God which almost 
forbid our talking about them. Their grandeur awes us into 
silent adoration. We can, at most, speak of them only in a 
reverential whisper. We gaze with trembling on the " great 
sight" which they set before us, and we seem to hear an awful 
voice of warning, " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the 
place whereon thou standest is holy ground ! " 

And above all other subjects is this the case when we 
attempt to think and speak of God. Even as that Heathen 
Sage, who had the feeling of true piety, whatever the limita- 
tion of his knowledge, we ask again and again, when ques- 
tioned about God, for time : we retire into the depths of our 
spirit : we return : again we pause — retire — return — and thus 
by the very symbol of this awestruck hesitation we proclaim 
that " man by searching cannot find out God." 

But when we have the guidance of authoritative revelation 
from God himself — and especially when our subject of medita- 
tion is not God in his inscrutable essence, but in his mani- 
fested character, in relation to ourselves— then, though the 
mind may sink, the heart will be elevated by even the most 
imperfect contemplation of the Divine Majesty. We may 
adore what we can never comprehend. 

Such hesitation is met by such encouragement when we 
attempt to meditate on that first great Article of the Christian 



56 GOD THE LORD OF ALL POWER. 

Faith, which forms the first division of the Apostles' Creed. 
Who can say " I believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven 
and earth?" — who can endeavour to tell himself what he really 
means by such a confession of a One, real, eternal Being, the 
Ground of all existence — the Original of all intelligence — 
the Author of all good — the Lord of all power — the Creator 
of all worlds — without a frequent pause of holy Awe? 

May such an Awe pervade our minds while we proceed to 
look on God, as the Lord of all power — " the Father 
Almighty ! " 

Now, the conception that we form of Might is twofold : that 
<i physical and that of moral superiority — Force, and Influence. 
And all that we see and feel of either of these properties in 
ourselves and in the world around us, is surpassed beyond 
comparison, by Him who is the Author of ourselves and of 
that world. This is the Idea of God's All-mightiness. 

We have some experience in ourselves of physical Might, of 
Force. We find a power to move at will the members of our 
body. We are able by this movement to communicate motion 
to inanimate things. Within a certain range we can actuate, 
control, enforce reluctant matter according to our will. And 
what one man can do in some degree, combinations of men 
can do still more effectually. Men marvel at the Might of 
their own will. 

But all this physical power of Man we find surpassed and 
overcome by the greater physical power which lives in the 
world around us. In the elements of nature, in the sweep of 
the tempest, the rushing of the waves, the pressure of the 
atmosphere, even the mere passive resistance of inert matter, 
the boasted force of man is met by a counterforce uncontrol- 
lable and irresistible. Man as compared with nature is but a 
reed shaken with the wind. The whole race of men are but 



GOD THE LORD OF ALL POWER. 57 

as vapour scattered by the storm-blast. " The multitude of 
the mighty is like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible 
ones as chaff that passeth away." 

But, out of all proportion as the powers of man are below 
the powers of nature, so, even to infinity, are the powers of 
nature below the All-mighty power of God. This is the com- 
parison which the Scriptures delight to make, in such varied 
and sublime language. This is the train of thought, by pass- 
ing along which we may come, not indeed to any positive con- 
ception of the Might of the Most High, but to some practi- 
cal feeling of its irresistible and all-controlling force. How 
grandly is this done by David in the 93rd Psalm. " The 
Lord reigneth ; he is clothed with Majesty ; the Lord is 
clothed with strength wherewith he girdeth himself.*' And 
how shall we appreciate this majesty ? By what standard 
shall we measure this strength ? — Look round upon the earth, 
that emblem of passive strength, which has stood firm for ages 
based on the eternal rocks — that world is established that it 
cannot be moved, — but God's throne has been established long 
before : — " Thou art from everlasting I " And look again 
upon the raging sea with all its active energy — its roaring 
waves, its mighty surge : " the floods have lifted up their 
voice, the floods lift up their waves,"— but " the Lord on high 
is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea than the mighty 
waves of the sea ! " All that has ever been experienced of 
the powers of nature — all that can be conceived of their pos- 
sible combined and concentrated force — all the dread sense of 
human insignificance and helplessness, that such experience and 
such conception can impress upon the mind — all this serves 
but as the emblem — the faint, inadequate emblem — of the All- 
mighty power of Him who made, upholds, controls them all. 
" In his hands are the deep places of the earth, and the strength 
of the hills is his." Ps. xcv. 4. " He looketh on the earth and it 

d5 



58 GOD THE LORD OF ALL POWER. 

trembleth ; he toucheth the hills and they smoke." Ps. civ. 
32, 33. " The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at 
his reproof." Job xxvi. 11. "He removeth the mountains 
and they know not : he overtui*neth them in his anger. He 
shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof 
tremble." Job ix 5, 6. " He putteth forth his hand upon the 
rocks ; he overturneth the mountains by the roots. He bindeth 
the flood from overflowing." Job xxviii, 9, 1 0. " Lo, these 
are but parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of 
him I The thunder of his power who can understand ? " Job 
xxvi. 14. "Ascribe ye strength unto God ! his excellency is 
over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. O God thou art 
terrible out of thy holy places I " Ps. Ixviii. 35. 

But there is yet a nobler, if not a more awful, conception of 
Power, which we gain from the experience and observation of 
Moral superiority — of the Might of Influence. We know 
something, from ourselves, of the mysterious efficiency of 
Will: of the determinations of our own spirit; and of the 
skill, the power of combination, the perseverance, with which 
it can bring out those determinations into act, mocking at 
difficulty and trampling over opposition. We see this achieved 
not only by each man, in his limited sphere of action, for him- 
self ; but also by one man over another, in society ; and by all 
men over each. Who has not stood awestruck at the contem- 
plation of some daring dominant Will, coercing thousands by 
its voice — directing millions by its nod ? And who has not 
felt a deeper emotion still at witnessing that more mysterious, 
because more purely mental. Influence which works as if by 
enchantment on the sentiments and passions of mankind, not 
forcing, by an ostentatious strength, but winning and mould- 
ing by a secret plastic energy, the wills of other men, to serve 
its purposes and do its work ? 

And when we go on even to brute existence, and inanimate 



GOD THE LORD OF ALL POWER. 



59 



nature, and see how Mind can enlist into its service even 
opposing forces, and convert the very energies of matter into 
instruments for controUing matter, and for subjugating it to 
htiman sway ; nothing, surely, in mere physical strength, 
nothing even in the overwhelming force of earth and sea 
and air can seem to us so grand, so kinglike, as the Influence 
of all-conquering, all-actuating Will I 

But just as this all- conquering, all- actuating Will do we 
contemplate God, when we regard him as the Father Al- 
mighty, the Sovereign Lord and Ruler of things in heaven, 
and things in earth, and things under the earth ; the one origi- 
nating Will within the various separate wills of rational beings, 
" in whose hands are the hearts of all men, and who doth turn 
and dispose them according to His godly wisdom I " "I am 
the Lord, — that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh 
diviners mad ; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh 
their knowledge foolish." Isa. Ixiv. 24, 25. " Surely as I 
have thought so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed 
so shall it stand." Isa. xiv. 24. " God is the Judge ; he put- 
teth down one and setteth up another." Ps. Ixxv. 7. "He is in 
one mind, who can turn Him ? And what his soul desireth even 
that he doeth ! " Job xxiii. 1 3. 

And such a God, then, — uniting in Himself, these two ele- 
ments of unlimited Power; Force and Influence — the phy- 
sical energy of divine Life — and the moral energy of divine 
Will — such a God, Almighty over matter and mind, do the 
Scriptures set before us under those majestic titles, " The 
Lord :" " The Lord of Hosts :" « The mighty God :" " The 
blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of 
Lords ! " In this character was he worshipped by Melchizedek 
when he " blessed Abram and said, Blessed be Abram of the 
Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth." Gen. xiv. 1 9. 
In this character did he reveal himself to Abraham himself, 



60 GOD THE LORD OF ALL POWER. 

when he " appeared to him and said to him, I am the Almighty 
God : walk before me and be thou perfect." Gen. xvii. 1. In 
this character he was enthroned as Sovereign of the Jewish 
people, the Lawgiver of their lawgiver, the King of their 
kings. " The Lord is our defence," says the Psalmist, " and 
the Holy One of Israel is our King." Ps. Ixxxix. 18. In this 
character he is celebrated as ruling, not in Israel only but over 
the whole earth, supreme. " There is none like unto Thee, 
O Lord ; thou art great, and thy name is great in might I Who 
would not fear thee O King of nations, for to Thee doth it 
appertain ; inasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, 
and in all their kingdoms there is none like unto Thee !" Jer. 
X. 7. " The Lord is the true God ; he is the living God ; and 
an everlasting King ; at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and 
the nations shall not be able to bear his indignation." Jer. x. 
^1 0. And in this character he is exalted equally above all Su- 
pernatural beings, be they the demons of the Gentiles, or the 
angelic thrones, dominions, principalities and powers of heaven. 
" The Lord of Hosts is great and greatly to be praised ; he 
is to be feared above all gods ; for all the gods of the nations 
are but idols, but the Lord made the heavens ! Honour and 
majesty are before him ; strength and beauty are in his sanc- 
tuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give 
unto the Lord the honour due unto his name ; worship the 
Lord in the beauty of holiness ; fear before him all the earth ; 
say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth ! " Ps. xcvi. 
4—10. 

And in this character, therefore, is He specially related to us 
— and to be adored by us. All conceptions of God, however 
exalted, which stop at the idea of his Being — and his Nature 
— and his benevolent Disposition — and go not on to his all 
governing^ controlling, Sovereign Power, stop short of a 
thoroughly practical bearing on our heart and characterr It 



GOD THE LORD OF ALL POWER, 61 

is in the nature of man to admire, and even adore, the myste- 
rious, the sublime, the good : but it is not in his nature to suh- 
mit himself hnt to the Supreme. Not indeed that to mere 
Force, however mighty, a rational nature can surrender : he may 
be trampled on and crushed, yet not subdued. It is only from 
the Influence of Will on will, that true submission — which is 
voluntary acquiescence — can result. And it is only, therefore, 
as we recognize, and think of, God, habitually, as the Almight2/ 
Will, that ordereth all things both in heaven and earth, that we 
attain to solid, practical religion, — which is moral obedience — 
as distinguished from mere sentimental feeling, or superstitious 
dread. So essential is this conception of the Sovereignty of 
God as Lord of all Power, that Sir Isaac Newton defines God, 
not by any abstract notion of his being, nature, and perfections 
in himself, but simply by this relative character of his Dominion 
over all things. " The word, God," he says, " is a relative 
term, and has regard to servants ; for a being however eternal, 
infinite, and absolutely perfect, without Dominion would not be 
God. We know him by his properties and attributes ; by the 
most wise and excellent structure of all things, and by final 
causes : but we ado7-e and worship him only on account of his 
Dominion. For God, setting aside Dominion, Providence, 
and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature." O that 
this great truth were deeply felt ! O to remember that the 
God whose Almightiness you, in your Creed, confess, is Your 
God — Your Lord — Your Sovereign Ruler. You do not 
merely spring from Him. You do not merely live b?^ Him. 
You must live to Him. As, in old time, children were also 
the servants of their parents, to do their bidding with a filial 
piety, so we who are the children of God, are by that very re- 
lation the servants also of our heavenly Father. He did not 
give us life and then dismiss us to follow our own devices. 
The hand that made us retains us in its grasp. The Will 



62 GOD THE LORD OF ALL POWER. 

that spoke us into being would have us exercise that being 
in harmony with itself. A derived will living in secession 
from the Absolute Will, this is the essence of sin and misery. 
And only therefore as our will returns into accordance with 
the Absolute can we find holiness and happiness ! 

Would then, that this subject of God's Almightiness might 
afford a salutary caution to every reader who may be contemning 
or neglecting — who is in the slightest degree inclined to con- 
temn or to neglect — the Authority of the law of God, the un- 
changeable demands of Duty towards the great Supreme I 
With whom are such contending ? Not with a man like your- 
self : — over whom you might calculate on ultimate triumph. 
Not with a multitude of men ; — whose power though you might 
never hope to overcome, you still may at last escape from 
through the gate of death. Not with the powers of nature ; — 
which, with all their tremendousness, are nothing as against 
an immaterial never dying Spirit. But with Him who is 
God and not man — who is Spirit and not flesh — the grasp of 
whose hand can never be relaxed — out of the sphere of whose 
influence you can never escape — who lives for ever, as your 
spirit will live — and who will act for ever on that spirit, for 
endless good, or endless evil I And are you mad then ? 
— you who are indifferent to the anger of your Almighty 
Sovereign ? Have you counted the cost ? Are you prepared 
for the result ? Will you brave the eternal consequences ? 
Remember, God has put forth laws and judgments — holy 
laws and righteous judgments — against sin : and God will 
never shrink from executing these judgments on your soul, 
if that sin shall continue unrepented of, not put away I 
" God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that 
he should repent ; hath he said and shall he not do it ? hath 
he spoken and shall he not make it good ?" Numb, xxiii. 19. 
" Hast thou an arm like God ? and canst thou thunder with a 



GOD THE LORD OF ALL POWER. 63 

voice like his ? " Job xl. 9. " He is wise in heart, and mighty 
in strength : who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath 
prospered ? " Job ix. 4. 

But on the other hand, what a blessed encouragement may be 
derived from this topic of God's Almightiness, to those who 
are endeavouring to do his will. You are not leaning on an 
arm of flesh. You are not trusting in created might. " The 
Lord of Hosts is with you, the God of Jacob is your refuge ! " 
And therefore amidst all your trials, dangers, and infirmities, 
you may be " strong in the Lord, and in the power of his 
might." " For there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, 
who rideth upon the heavens in thy help, and in his excellency 
on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath 
are the everlasting arms I" Deut. xxxiii. 26. O the full secu- 
rity, the all sufficient help, provided for every faithful servant 
of God ! 

" Who the Creator love, created might 

Dread not : within their tents no terrors walk ; 

For they are holy things before the Lord, 

Aye unprofaned, though earth should league with hell ! " 



64 



CHAPTER V. 

GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 

Every subject of religious meditation endears to us the 
Word of God — the inspired and authoritative revelation of 
divine truth. Without the Bible we must be tossed for ever 
on the boundless ocean of conjecture. With it we have a com- 
pass to direct our course into the haven of peace. From 
other sources we may learn our wants, but Scripture only 
tells us how these wants may be supplied. By other teachers, 
questions manifold may be aroused in us, but Scripture only 
furnishes to such questions an answer that can satisfy. From 
observation and experience we are taught that we are sinful, 
weak, and dying men ; but from the Bible we discover how 
the sinner may be pardoned, the weak made strong, the being 
of a day enjoy the blessed hope of everlasting life. Nature 
and Reason set before us objects full of wisdom, power, 
and beauty ; and teach us something of their marvellous con- 
nection and symmetry ; and point with no wavering finger to 
the hidden Source from which they must have sprung; but 
the Bible unveils to us this hidden Source as the Maker of 
these glorious works, the Author of their form, the Producer 
of their very substance. Thanks be to God for his enlighten- 
ing Word ! 

Such gratitude we cannot but experience in passing on to 
the consideration of the third clause of the Apostles' Creed, 
which sets before us a truth, which nothing but Itevelation 



GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 65 

can make certain, and nothing but Faith can receive, the 
Creation, namely of all worlds. We have meditated already 
upon God as the Ground of all being — the Original of all 
intelligence — the Author of all good — the Lord of all power ; 
we have now to look upon him as emphatically, and in a 
sense which none of those previous views necessarily imply, 
the Creator of all- worlds: " I beheve in God the Father 
Almighty Maker of heaven and earth." 

And thanks be to God, again I say, that we have only to 
consult, on this mysterious topic, the simple declarations of 
the Word of God. Creation is a work of which the Under- 
standing can form no conception. The very Idea is one 
which not all our observation, nor all our experience ; and 
consequently not all our reasoning, whose basis and material 
must be observation and experience ; can furnish us with. We 
see, indeed, that things are produced one from another. We 
are able ourselves to fashion materials supplied to us into 
innumerable forms. But the production of the first material 
— not from any thing else — this we can form no conception of, 
because any thing like this we have never met with. 

And therefore the Apostle Paul when he asserts this truth, 
declares it as a truth to be received by Faith. " Through 
foAth we understand" (^■. e. we judge, become convinced of; 
not, we comprehend*) "that the worlds were framed by the 
Word of God." Heb, xi. 3. Through that faith which he 
defines as " the evidence of things not seen ;" — which, when 
the Senses and the Understanding have run through the 

* N«flt/jM£v expresses the conviction of the Reason, not the comprehension of 
the Understanding. See Rom. i. 20, " the invisible things of God are clearly- 
seen," (recognized ; not, seen into) " being understood," {yoovf^ivix. judged of, 
brought home to our mind) "by the things that are made." Cf. Justin, 
quoted by Grotius : ctlros iuvtov I'^i^ii^iv, l-ri^u^i Ti ^tx, Tiima;, ^ f^ov/i @tov i}s7v 
ffuyy.iXC'jpyircii. " God has himself manifested himself ; but this to faith ; hy 
tchich alone can we attain to know God." 



66 GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 

entire series of things produced and things producing, of con- 
sequents and antecedents, effects and causes, and stand baffled 
in amazement, in blank suspense — then, takes the place of 
these inferior faculties and with a child-like confidence sits 
down before the inspired Oracle of God, and listens with a 
docile admiration to the first sentence of the first chapter 
of the first book of His revelations — " In the beginning God 
CREATED the heavens and the earth." Gen. i, 1. 

" Through faith " then, " we understand that the worlds 
were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are 
seen were not made of things that do appear." Let us con- 
sider the truths revealed to us in this declaration. 

And first we learn from it. That all things were made by 
God. " The worlds," i. e, all that we see on earth and in the 
sky — this globe on which we live, that sun round which it 
moves, and all those other worlds which spangle the veil 
of night — these were all " framed by the Word of God." 
They owe, not only their form and constitution, all the order 
of their several parts, all the regularity of their movements, 
all the method and symmetry of their marvellous being, but 
that being itself^ to the will and wisdom and power of God. 
As no one can look upon the mechanism of a watch, and say 
it threw itself, or could have fallen by chance, into those 
arrangements which conduce, by complicated and yet orderly 
movement to a certain definite end ; so no one can observe 
the system of the universe without recognizing and adoring 
the " framing," putting together, contrivance, it displays ; and 
crying out spontaneously " This has been intended — been 

* For Karct^TiXco is used in the Septuagint, Ps. Ixxiv. 16, as equivalent to 
|?|3, to make ; set \ip ; cause to be ; Vulg. " Tu fahrwatus es auroram et 
solem." Compare also its use in Heb. x. 5. " A body hast thou prepared," 
formed, constructed, " for me." 



GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 67 

pre-arranged — been fashioned — been produced !" Hence the 
very name for the world is derived both in Greek and Latin 
from its order, symmetry, beauty. Hence the Hebrew words 
for its production ail express a forming, framing, fashioning, 
moulding, even as a potter moulds clay with plastic hand, 
into the shape, and for the use, which he has purposed in 
himself. Words are the signs of conceptions, and all words 
in every language, that refer to this subject, show that men 
cannot form to themselves cmy other conception of the origin 
of the world than this of its formation and production by 
another than itself. Go down even to the lowest grade of 
humanity, and ask the Hottentot and the CaflFre what they 
have learned from merely opening their eyes on things around 
them, and taking in the first impression they present, and you 
will find that their proper names for God, signify " Worker" 
and " Maker." 

So universal is the faith, which the Bible authenticates, in 
"a Maker of Heaven and Earth." " The heavens declare 
the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work. 
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth 
knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their 
voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the 
earthy and their words to the end of the world" Ps. xix. 1 — 4. 
" The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, by under- 
standing hath he established the heavens." Prov. iii. 19. 
" Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the 
heavens are the work of thy hands." Ps. cii. 25. '<■ Blessed 
be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and 
praise. Thou, even thou, art Lord alone : thou hast made 
heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host ; the earth 
and all things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein, 
and thou preservest them all, and the host of heaven wor- 
shippeth thee I" Nehem. ix, 5, 6. 



68 GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 

But those words of St. Paul contain yet more than this. 
The second truth we learn from them is, That all things were 
thus made hy God out of nothing. " The worlds were framed, 
so that things which are seen, were not made of things which do 
appear'' It was not by the mere application of wisdom and 
power to existing materials ; it was not simply by reducing 
some rude, confused, chaotic mass of original matter into 
beauty and order ; that God wrought as the Maker of heaven 
and earth. That matter itself was produced hy him. The liv- 
ing energy of God created that which the divine wisdom subse- 
quently moulded and fashioned into shape and beauty. Not 
merely was the present form of things produced— their very 
substance was called into being by God. True, this is above 
our comprehension. True, therefore, that no single word, in 
any language, has precisely expressed this ; for words are 
formed from things and facts ; and things and facts present to 
us only the idea oi formation, never of absolute creation. But 
not the less true is it that thus it must be. That " the things 
which are seen were not made of things which do appear,'' is 
indeed a fact beyond our conception, but it is not the less a 
fact. We cannot understand how it should be, but we may be 
convinced that it is. For no other conclusion can consist with 
the nature of God, or of the world, or of the relation in which 
God stands to the world. There are but three modes of pro- 
duction by which the world can have come into being. To 
suppose either of the two former is to make the world part of 
God, or equal to God. The latter therefore is the only sup- 
position left to us. The first mode is that of Emanation, or 
production from God himself; and this is true only of Him 
the only begotten Son, who is " very God of very God ; " — 
" bright effluence of bright essence, increate'.' The second is 
that of Foo'mation, or production out of substances already ex- 
isting independently of God ; which is true of God's organiza- 



GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 69 

tion and continued multiplication of created things, but never 
can be true of \hQ first production of those things. For, in the 
first place, such a process is not a first production, a pre-exis- 
tent something being implied in the very notion of it ; and in 
the second place, to suppose such pre-existing something out 
of God, on which God worked, is to assume that God is not the 
Ground, nor can therefore be the Lord of all things, i, e. that 
he is not God. And therefore there is nothing remaining for 
us to admit (we must believe it though we cannot understand 
it) but the third mode of production, which we emphatically 
call Creation — a production not from God himself— x^qx from 
any thing existing out of God ; — and therefore expressible only 
by the phrase production otct of nothing : which phrase, indeed, 
can convey to us no positive conception — is not intended to 
convey it — but simply excludes and puts away all other posi- 
tive conceptions, and confines the mind to the simple Fact, of 
the entire Origination of the world by God, — how, we know 
not ; how, we cannot know.* All things that exist are no 
emanation from God — they are not co-existent with God, — but, 
both in substance as in form, they have been called into being 
by God. " Of Him," says Paul, " and through Him, and to 
Him are all things." Rom. xi. 36. '•' Who hath wrought and 
done this ? " says the Lord by Isaiah, " I w^ho have called the 
generations of men from the beginning " — i. e. by whose will 
and fiat all the nations of the earth have sprung up into being 
— " I the Lord, the First and with the last, I am He ; " Isa. 

* Ex nihilo, id est, non ex aliquo. Gerhard. Non designat materiam sed 
exdudit. Quenstedt. The idea of creation out of nothing excludes every con- 
ceivable cause, whether passive or active, that can be supposed concurrent 
with the Originative energy of God. All things exist simply and solely by 
the Divine Will. " Quod autem res ex nihilo conditse sunt docet heec sen- 
tentia : ' Ipse dixit et facta sunt, ipse mandavit et creata sunt," i. e. dieente 
seujuhenie Deo res eocortce sunt. Non igitur ex materia priore exstructae sunt, 
sed Deo dieente, cum res non essent, esse cfsperunt." — Melancthon. 



70 GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 

xli. 4. " I am He : I am the first, I also am the last. Mine 
hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth and my right 
hand hath spanned the heavens : when I call unto them they 
stand up together V Isa. xlviii. 12, 13.* 

And this thought leads to the third truth which this passage 
of St. Paul declares to us ; — namely, that all things were made 
out of nothing by the simple Energy of the Divine Will. 
" Through faith we understand that the world was made hy the 
word of God" To do things " with a word " is a strong 
proof of Divine power. " Lord trouble not thyself," said the 
Centurion to our blessed Lord, " but speak the word only, and 
my servant shall be healed." Matt. viii. 8. " I will," said 
Jesus to the leper, " be thou dean ; and immediately his le- 
prosy was cleansed." Matt. viii. 3. But to make things by a 
word is a yet higher work, the work of absolute creative 
energy. To think and to act are, with God, the same. To 
declare his will is to execute, in and by that declaration, that 
will. And this it is which the Apostle commemorates as the 
divine method of creation. The idea excludes all labour — 
all preparation — all means — all processes in time and space. 
And it represents, therefore, not the gvdidiVidX formation of this 
visible world, as this is detailed from the second verse onward 
of the first chapter of Genesis; but the previous creation 
of the material itself, which God gradually reduced into its 
present form. " In the beginning^'' before any thing existed, 
" God created the heavens and the earth." Gen. i. 1. "By 

* This term, therefore, " to call into being," is perhaps the simplest to ex- 
press that inscrutable act or energy whereby the Almightj^ made to he things 
that previously were not. In which sense Philo also says, to. fm ovra. lxaXi(riv 
lU ro sTyxi. The phrase, " Creation out of nothing, " is derived from 2 Mace. 
vii. 28 : " I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all 
that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not," 
e| ovK ovTuv, which the Vulgate has translated ex nihilo. 



GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 71 

the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host 
of them by the breath of his mouth. He spake and it was 
done ; he commanded and it stood fast." Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9. 
" Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and 
power ; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure " 
(according to thy pleasure,* the mere expression of thy will) 
— " they exist and they are created ! " Rev. iv. 11. 

And hence it is that we are told, in other parts of Scripture, 
that God made all things by his only begotten Son. For the 
Son of God is his essential, living, and life-giving Word — the 
expression and putting forth of the Divine Will — the execu- 
tive of the Supreme. " In the beginning," says St. John, 
" was The Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 
was God. By Him" e. e. through Him, by his ministration, 
as the Godhead put forth in act, "were all things made, and 
without him was not any thing made that was made." John 
i. 1, 3. And as St. Paul confesses that "to us there is one 
God, the Father^ of whom are all things and we in him " so 
equally does he declare that " there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, 
bi/ whom are all things, and we b?/ him." 1 Cor. viii. 6. 
" For, bi/ him" he writes to the Hebrews, " God made the 
worlds." Heb. i. 2. " By him," he tells the Colossians, " were 
all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, 
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or 
principalities or powers ; all things were created by Him and 
for Him ; and He is before all things, and by Him all things 
consist." Col. i. 16, 17. The unseen Father dwells in the 
mysterious depths of the Godhead, " dark with excessive 
bright." The Son is the Manifester of his mind and will ; 
and as the Manifester of the divine Will, he is, at the same 
time and by the same act, the Creator of the divine wo7'ks : 

* hk ro kXnfJ^a- ffov. Cf. Daniel viii. 4 : xi. 3. 16. "He that cometh against 
him shall do according to his oivn will, and none shall stand before him." 



72 GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 

for with God expression is execution, and to speak is to call 
into being that which he speaks. These, indeed, are high and 
awful themes, but they are Scriptural, and therefore profitable. 
It is well to gaze sometimes on those dark clouds of mystery 
which envelope the Supreme ; till some bright flashes of un- 
earthly truth break forth upon our startled sights, and dazzle 
us into the conviction that we are truly " but of yesterday 
and know nothing ; " — that " God is great and we know him 
not ; " — that " touching the Almighty we cannot find him 
out!" 

Such then are the truths concerning God as " the Maker of 
heaven and earth," which it becomes us well to ponder and 
adore. They are not speculative, but practical ; they are not 
the dreams of philosophy, but the revelations of the wisdom of 
God. 

And let us then learn from them, first, the insignificance 
of created things. We look around us on the majesty and 
beauty of nature — we contemplate the deep-rooted mountains, 
the ever rolling sea, the stedfast heavens with their worlds of 
light — and we can understand, if not excuse, the reverence 
with which untutored ignorance fell down and worshipped all 
this grandeur, stopping at the things it saw. But when we 
know that all this goodly earth, and all that shining host 
of heaven are but the creatures of Superior Might — that they 
are made — that they have been called forth into being within 
a limited time — and that, moreover, as that being depends, 
from first to last, upon the simple Will of their Creator, they 
may as easily, when he shall please, dissolve into their original 
nothingness, and, like the baseless fabric of a vision, leave not 
a rack behind — then may we learn to count all visible and 
material existences as of very little worth. What is this world 
in which we live, but as a younger daughter of the Creative 



GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 73 

Energy ; one link in the long-drawn series of God's self-mani- 
festations ; one little island in the boundless ocean of being ; 
one single particle of the ever- flowing current of life ; and the 
All before it, and the All around it^ and the All that shall 
follow itj who can picture to his liveliest fancy ? If astrono- 
mers inform us that changes are continually going on amidst 
the stars of heaven, new ones emerging into being, and old 
ones disappearing from the face of creation ; if we know from 
every source that can be depended on that this our earth is 
similarly but the creation of yesterday ; what then are we, its 
inhabitants — what is all that it contains — what the great globe 
itself — what the universe, of which it is so small a part — com- 
pared with God ? with Him who made them — who holds them 
in his hand, and who can in a moment drop them from his 
grasp ? with Him who has " measured the waters in the hol- 
low of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and 
comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed 
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance ! Behold, 
the nations, before Him, are as a drop of the bucket, and are 
counted as the small dust of the balance ; behold, he taketh 
up the isles as a very little thing !" 

Learn then, secondly, from this subject, the surpassing worth 
of the Creator s favour. " We are the clay, and He is the 
potter, and we are all the work of his hand." It is in God 
that we live, and move, and have our being ; with God that 
we have to do ; and by God that our eternal place and form of 
being will be assigned to us, when all that now excites our 
admiration shall have been dissolved — when " the heavens 
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall 
melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that 
are therein, shall be burned up." And O, therefore, to stand 
well with God I Reader, let me ask you, Do you stand well 
with God? You are a sinner — have you sought his mercy ? 

E 



74 GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 

You are corrupt — have you obtained his grace ? You are mor- 
tal — have you become partaker of his life ? That mercy is to 
be found only through the atoning merits of the Son of God, 
and not by your own works and deservings. That grace is to 
be enjoyed only through the indwelling of the Spirit of this 
Son in your hearts. That Life is to be realized only by your 
vital union by this Spirit with this Son. And have you then 
fled to this Son of God ? Are you living in this Son of God ? 
If not, where is your stay ? And where shall be your refuge 
in that awful day when you shall see " the great white throne 
and Him that sitteth on it, from whose face the earth and the 
heaven shall flee away ; and there shall be found no place for 
them?" 

But are you indeed standing well with your Creator, because 
you have been " created anew in Christ Jesus unto good 
works?" Then learn, lastly, from this subject, the blessedness 
of that new creation, of which all present things are but the 
harbingers. There shall be another creation — " a new hea- 
vens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." And 
all the power of God, as the Originator of this present world, 
is the promise and the pledge of that greater power which he 
will put forth in the regeneration, when he shall make all 
things new. Your hope is fixed on One who was before this 
world, and shall be after it — who called it into being at his 
word, and with a word can change it into a far more glorious 
being ! And, " blessed therefore" (let me say in Hooker's 
noble words) "blessed for ever and ever be that mother's 
child whose faith hath made him the child of God / The earth 
may shake, the pillars of the world may tremble under us, the 
countenance of the heaven may be appalled, the sun may lose 
his light, the moon her beauty, the stars their glory, but con- 
cerning the man that trusteth in God, what is there in the 
world that shall change his heart or overthrow his faith ? — 



GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL WORLDS. 75 

alter his afFection towards God, or the affection of God to 
him?" "Lift up your eyes to the heavens" (we must close 
with far diviner words than those) " and look upon the earth 
beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and 
the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell 
therein shall die in like manner ; but "my salcoMon shall be for 
ever^ and my righteousness shall not be abolished I" Isa. li. 6. 



E 2 



THE APOSTLES' CREED. 



PART IL 



GOD THE SON. 

Est autem Christus certitudo et pignus gratise Dei. — Zwinglius. 

Nous pouvons connoitre Dieu sans connoitre nos miseres ; ou nos miseres, 
sans connoitre Dieu ; ou meme Dieu et nos miseres, sans connoitre le moyen 
de nous delivrer des miseres qui nous accablent. Mais nous ne pouvons con- 
noitre Jesus-Christ sans connoitre tout ensemble, et Dieu, et nos miseres, et 
le remede de nos miseres ; parceque Jesus-Christ n'est pas simplement Dieu, 
mais que c'est un Dieu reparateur de nos miseres. — Pascal. 



La Divinite des Chretiens ne consiste pas en un Dieu simplement auteur 
des verites geometriques et de I'ordre des elements ; c'est la part des Paiens. 
EUe ne consiste pas simplement en un Dieu qui exerce sa Pro\idence sur la 
vie et sur les biens des hommes, pour donner une heureuse suite d'annees a 
ceux qui I'adorent ; c'est le partage des Juifs. Mais le Dieu des Chretiens 
est un Dieu d'amour et de consolation ; c'est un Dieu qui remplit I'ame et le 
coeur qu'il possede : c'est un Dieu qui leur fait sentir interieurement leur mi- 
sere et sa misericorde infinie ; qvii s'unit au fond de leur ame ; qui la rempKt 
d'huniilite, de joie, de confiance, d'amour ; qui les i:end incapables d'autre fin 
que de lui-meme. — Pascal. 



PART II. 

GOD THE SON. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 



The necessities of man are threefold — arising from his 
threefold condition as a limited being, a guilty being, and an 
infirm being. And therefore the revelations of God, which 
address themselves to those necessities and that condition, are 
similarly threefold — of a Father on whom the limited may 
lean with reverent dependence — of a Saviour by whom the 
guilty may be liberated from his condemnation — and of a Sanc- 
tifier who can strengthen the infirm and quicken him to spiri- 
tual life. 

Hence the threefold division of our Creed ; which is no ar- 
bitrary arrangement, but results from that inherent distinction 
which runs throughout the Scriptures, and according to which 
all just views of Theology involuntarily arrange themselves. 
The doctrine of the Trinity is essentially connected with the 
nature of man, and the manifestations of God; it is no branch 
and off'set, but the very root and trunk of Christianity. 

To the second particular, then, of this great doctrine we 
pass, in entering on that Second Division of our Creed, in 
which we " learn to believe in God the Son, who hath re- 
deemed us AND ALL MANKIND." In which Division our atten- 
tion must be turned, successively, to the Titles — the Birth — the 



80 THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 

Death — the Resurrection — the Exaltation — and the Coming 
again — of our Divine Master, Jesus Christ. 

His Titles are expressed in those words of the Creed, " I 
behove in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord." In which 
you will observe that our blessed Redeemer is distinguished by 
names which indicate his Office, as the Saviour — his Dignity, 
as the Christ — his Nature, as the Son of God — and his Au- 
tliority, as our Lord. 

The First Title, then, which we have to consider, is that of 
" Jesus;" which indicates his Office as the Saviour of the 
world. 

For you are aware how common is the practice, in Holy 
Writ, of designating persons by names which serve as memo- 
rials of some circumstance connected with their birth, or cha- 
racter, or office. Eve, for example, was so called by God, be- 
cause she was " the mother of all living." Lamech called 
the name of his son, Noah (i. e. rest or comfort) " because he 
said, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil 
of our hands." Abram, when God promised to make him 
the Founder of the vast family of His faithful worshippers 
was from that time entitled by Him "Abraham," i.e. "a 
Father of a great multitude," for says the Lord, " a Father of 
many nations have I constituted thee." And so, similarly, 
when He was born who was to be the Deliverer from all sin 
and misery, to Him was appointed as his proper name a title 
which intimates the nature of the work and office which was 
entrusted to Him : *' Thou shall call his name Jesus " {i. e. 
Saviour) said the angel of the Lord to Joseph, " for he shall 
save his people from their sins." Matt. i. 21. 

Salvation, then, — Deliverance — is the glorious Office as- 
signed to our blessed Lord. Other persons^ indeed, had 
been called Saviours, who were sent by God on particular 



THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 81 

emergencies to work out particular deliverances for his people. 
Thus, when the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, 
in the times of the Judges, and " he sold them into the hand 
of Cushan-rishathaim, King of Mesopotamia," then, (we read, 
■Judges iii. 9) " When the children of Israel cried unto the 
Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer " (a Saviour) " to the 
children of Israel, who delivered " (saved) " them ; even 
Othniel the son of Kenaz." And such gracious interposi- 
tions are commemorated in the book of Nehemiah as mani- 
festations of God's untiring compassion : " When they were 
disobedient and rebelled against thee, thou deliveredst them 
into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them ; but, in the 
time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest 
them from heaven ; and according to thy manifold mercies 
thou gavest them Saviours, who saved them out of the hand 
of their enemies." Nehem. ix. 26, 27. And what these tem- 
porary and local saviours were to some portions of mankind, 
that is Jesus to an enslaved and guilty world, "God" says 
our Lord, " so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but 
have everlasting life." John iii. 16. 

But this title, " Jesus," indicates not only the great work 
of Salvation, or Deliverance, of the human race from the evil 
they have brought upon themselves by their rebellion against 
God ; but it declares, moreover, that this deliverance is 
emphatically a divine work, undertaken in God's name — fur- 
thered by God's help — made successful by God's power. For, 
" Jesus " means more than Deliverance ; it means " The 
Lord's deliverance." The form " Jesus " of the New Tes- 
tament is equivalent to " Joshua," in the Old Testament. 
And the title " Joshua," you will remember, was given by 
God to the Successor of Moses, with special reference to 
his becoming The Liberator whom God himself ajjpoi^ited ; 

E 5 



82 THE OFFICE OP CHRIST. 

to complete the redemption of the people of Israel, and to 
bring them into the full enjoyment of the inheritance promised 
to them. Joshua's original name was Hoshea, which means 
simply " Deliverance ;" but when God selected him, first to go 
up and examine the promised land, and then to lead the Is- 
raelites into it, " He called Oshea, Jehoshua" (Numb. xiii. 16) 
i. e. Joshua ; prefixing to his original appellation the first 
syllable of the Divine Name, " Jehovah," to indicate that 
He had appointed him as His Deliverer — the Deliverer con- 
stituted and commissioned by His authority and sent forth 
in His name, to accomplish His work, and thus marking 
out his office to the people as clearly, as if he had said to 
them, in so many words, " This is the person by whom I, 
Jehovah, will certainly accomplish that great Deliverance, 
which after such delay still lingers — to which such obstacles 
are still opposed by the giants in the land — ^to which you feel 
that human power is utterly unequal — but which by my 
divine Might shall be conquered for you." 

In the name " Jesus," then, we are assured, not only of 
deliverance from guilt and misery, but of the certainty of 
that Deliverance ; its full accomplishment, notwithstanding 
every obstacle, through the exercise of (i^tj/;?e interposition. 
And consequently it includes in its meaning all that is ex- 
pressed by those other titles of vast significance by which the 
promised Saviour is designated by the prophets of God. 

It is explained, for example, by St. Matthew as being equi- 
valent to " Imraanuel," — God with us ; God on our side — - 
God our helper and defender ; " the Lord of Hosts with us, 
the God of Jacob our refuge." Matt. i. 23. For you will 
recollect how that title " Immanuel " was first vouchsafed, 
through the Prophet Isaiah, in the time of Ahab, as the pledge 
of God's continued help, notwithstanding the despondency 
of the rulers, and of the majority of the people. It was the 



THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 



83 



watchword of the faithful, to animate them -with hope, and 
to assure them that their God would never leave their side. 
Was "the heart of the people moved, as the trees of the 
wood are moved with the wind?" God's servants were to 
be quiet and fear not, for, " Behold, the Lord shall give you 
a sign ; a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call 
his name Immanueir Isa. vii. 14. Would the armies of As- 
syria pass through Judah, and as an overflowing stream reach 
even to the neck, and fill the breadth of the land ? Still, cheer 
up ! at that single word, " Immanuel /" Isa. viii. 8. Would 
the nations associate themselves together? They should be 
broken in pieces ! Would they take counsel together ? Their 
counsel should come to nought I For, again remember, " Im- 
manuel V i. e. God is with us I Isa. viii. 9, 10. Even as the 
Psalmist assures himself with the thought, " The Lord is on 
my side, I will not fear what man can do unto me. The 
Lord taketh my part with them that help me I" Ps. cxviii. 
6, 7. Even as God cheers the faithful by Ezekiel, saying 
" I will raise up for them a Vlant of renown, and they shall 
be no more consumed >^with hunger in the land, neither shall 
they bear the shame of the heathen any more ; and then shall 
they know that /, the Lord their God am with them, and that 
they are my people, saith the Lord God I" Ezek. xxxiv. 
29, 30. 

Nor less equivalent, therefore, is this name " Jesus," to 
that other title of the Great Deliverer, proclaimed by Jeremiah, 
when he said, (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6,) " Behold the days shall come, 
saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, 
and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judg- 
ment and justice in the earth : in his days Judah shall be 
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his Name 
whereby he shall be called. The Lord our Righteousness,'' i. e. 
Jehovah our Vindicator — the maintainor of our cause — our 



84 THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 

never failing Helper I Even as David cries to the Lord for 
safety from all his enemies, — " Hear me when I call God 
of my righteousness ! " Ps. iv. 1 . Even as, elsewhere, he ex- 
presses his reliance on God's protection,, — " By terrible things 
in righteousness wilt thou answer us, God of our salvation^ 
who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth !" Ps. Ixv. 5. 
Thus then you see the Idea expressed by this Title, " Jesus," 
open out till it comprehends within its ample sphere all that 
you need, for help, deliverance, protection, blessedness ; all 
that the ancients sought to indicate by the untranslatable 
title which they gave their benefactors, princes, tutelary 
gods;* all that is ascribed, by an accumulation of terms, to 
Jehovah himself, when David declares, " The Lord is my 
rock ; and my fortress ; and my deliverer ; in him will I trust ; 
he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, 
and my refuge, and my Saviour^ 2 Sam. xxii. 2, 3. The 
office of our blessed Lord thus indicated is that of Deliverance 
from evil in every possible form in which it presses on the 
world at large, and on the individual soul. It is a Deliverance 
assured to us by the presence and power of God himself as 
The Deliverer. It is a Deliverance which includes all the 
care and guardianship needfid for our maintenance in liberty 
and peace, and our enjoyment of its fullest blessings. Your 
Lord can rescue you from the bondage of evil, for he is Jesus, 
— the Saviour : he can bring you into the promised land of 

* " Hoc quantum est ! ita magnum, ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non 
possit. Is est nimirum sofe?-, qui salutem dedit." Cicero,Verr. 2. 63. "But 
why untranslatable ? " asks Emesti. " Why not by ' servator ? ' Because 
' sen^ator' wUl express o-mt'^^ so far as it intimates a deKverer from evil and 
danger ; but not in the sense in which tru~'^o is equivalent to svi^yirf^s, one 
who enriches and adonis us with benefits.'''' And truly, Jesus is not merely our 
Deliverer, but one who enriches and adorns his people with every blessing ! 
who exercises all care and guardianship over those delivered, and loads them 
with the benefits which he has purchased for them with his blood ! 



THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 85 

holiness, for he is Jesus — the Divine Saviour : he can secure 
to you all the blessings of that land, for he is Jesus — the ever- 
living Saviour. 

Do you then feel your need of Deliverance from eml ? Are 
you groaning- under an oppression worse than that of the 
Israelites in Egypt, when they " sighed by reason of their 
bondage, and they cried, and their cry came unto God by 
reason of their bondage ? " Do you find yourself in the hands 
of enemies who " vex" you, more than all the people of Canaan 
could vex the children of Israel, when " in the time of their 
trouble they cried out unto the Lord?" O remember that He 
who listened to his people in all their successive dangers, not- 
withstanding their folly and guilt, and " heard their groaning 
because he remembered his covenant with their fathers, and 
gave them Saviours who saved them out of the hand of their 
enemies" — He has given for you " a Saviour which is Christ 
the Lord ! " I ask not what is the condition of your bondage 
— I ask not what are your temptations, difficulties, nay more, 
the remaining power of your sinful impulses and habits — I ask 
only, Have you begun to struggle with your spiritual enemies ? 
Do you long to break off the yoke which galls j^ou, and to rise 
against the tyrant who has led you captive at his will ? And 
I say that for such, just such in all their destitution, there is 
proclaimed, in Jesus a Deliverer mighty to save ! Where, 
indeed, there is no struggle we know not how to speak of 
help ; when men hug their chains, we talk in vain of Deliver- 
ance ; the whole Gospel of Christ presupposes a consciousness 
of sin and danger — presupposes a desire to escape therefrom 
— presup2)oses an effort to catch at every means by which the 
soul may be rescued from its spiritual thraldom. But where 
there is such a struggle, there God himself is " having respect 
to it ;" then Christ himself invites you, '^ Come unto me, thou 
that art weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest ! " 



86 THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 

Surely there are multitudes who are not really in love with sin, 
even though they are too often brought under the power of 
sin — who hate themselves for their folly, who groan under 
their weakness, who would give the world to be rescued from 
their abject slavery and translated from the power of darkness 
into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Surely there are many 
who, if they could but believe their case was not entirely des- 
perate, would find new life poured into their heart, animating 
their powers, and quickening them to one determined, because 
hopeful, spring from sin to holiness, from the devil to God ! 
And yet how difficult it is to get men to believe this ! How 
faint, how dead, in the guilty conscience, is trust in God I 
How long it was before Moses could persuade the Israelites 
that the Lord would really deliver them by his hand ; how fluc- 
tuating were their expectations even when they had given ear to 
his assurances ! And therefore^ the first grand object of the 
manifestation of Jesus as the Saviour, is to inspire Hope ; to 
lift up a standard round which the worsted combatants with 
the world, the flesh, and the devil, may rally and renew the 
fight — to stretch forth a hand which the drowning sinner, in 
his agony, may catch at — to change the moan of desperation, 
" O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the 
body of this death !" into the cry of hope, " I thank God, 
through Jesus Christ my Lord ! " Do you complain that you 
are guilty and deserving of God's indignation? True. But 
Jesus shed his blood upon the cross to blot out your guilt I 
Do you cry. There is no health in me ? True. But Jesus is 
the good physician who can heal your sicknesses ! Have you 
found by frequent trial that all the purposes and efi'orts of mere 
remorse have no force to deliver you from the power of " the 
strong man armed" who has possession of your soul? True. 
But Jesus is " a Stronger than he," who can bind him and 
cast him out ! O for faith I O for hope ! O for that some- 



THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 87 

thing far more and other, than shame, and self-reproach, and 
reformation — that transformation of the inner man by the 
renewing of the mind, which Faith and Hope can work ! And 
then, " in that day you shall say, O Lord I will praise thee ; 
though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away 
and thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my Salvatio7i ! I 
will trust and not be afraid, for the I^ord Jehovah is my 
strength and my song ; he also is become my Salvation ! " 
Isa. xii. 1, 2. 

But, perhaps, you have thus turned to God by Christ, and 
thus have found him to be indeed your " Jesus," as the De- 
liverer from guilt. Yet still, you need continual help. You 
have escaped the doom of Egypt ; you have sprinkled the 
blood of the atoning lamb upon your conscience ; the de- 
stroying angel has passed over you ; and you have girded up 
your loins, and taken the pilgrim's staff, and are hastening 
through the wilderness in eager flight from your detested 
bondage. But then, your pilgrimage is one of trial — disap- 
pointment — attack from enemies — weariness in yourself — delay 
and seeming denial of the promised inheritance. But fear not 
Christian, you have a Saviour with you still. He who brought 
you out, now goes before you. He who consecrated you to 
God, intercedes for you with God. He is your Protector as 
well as your Deliverer. His office is to guide you in your 
course through " all that way" that you must pass along from 
the city of destruction to the city of God. As God, by Moses, 
led his people through the wilderness, so does He, by Jesus, 
lead you " by a right way to a city of habitation." " He brought 
them out," we read, " by the Shepherd of his flock ; " He put 
his holy Spirit within him ; he led them by the right hand of 
Moses, with his glorious arm, dividing the water before him, 
to make himself an everlasting name." Isa. Ixiii. 11,12. "He 
found them in a desert land and the vast howling wilderness ; 



88 THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 

he led them about, he instructed them ; he kept them as the 
apple of his eye ; as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth 
over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, 
beareth them on her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead them, 
and there was no strange God with them I" Deut.xxxii. 10 — 
12. O what an animating image is this, to set forth to us 
the unfailing care of God our Saviour ! What effectual 
guardianship does it proclaim for all who, having come out, 
by the right hand of Jesus, from the bondage of the Evil 
One, are marching under his banner, towards the rest 
and the inheritance which he has purchased for them by his 
blood ! 

And to this rest, and this inheritance he will ultimately bring 
them in. This is the third thing pledged to us by the very 
title of " Jesus J' Not only that He begins salvation, for us, 
by the blotting out our guilt — and carries on salvation, in us, 
by the guiding our steps into the path of peace — but that he 
will complete this salvation, to us, by the final subjugation of 
every enemy, and the pouring out on us all the riches of the 
promised land. He who died to justify us, and lives to sanctify 
us, will come again in glory to bless us I He is the true 
Joshua, the Captain of the Lord, who shall lead his people 
over Jordan, and bring them to his everlasting kingdom. " The 
Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from 
transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord." Isa. lix. 20. " And 
they shall call thee, the City of the Lord, the Zion of the 
Holy One of Israel ; and I will make thee an eternal excel- 
lency, a joy of many generations, and thou shalt know that 7, 
the LA)rd, am thy Saviour^ and thy Redeemer, the mighty One 
of Jacob." Isa. Ix. 14 — 16. You have the jjledge of all this, 
in the work which Christ has already done for you — you have 
the aniicipation of it in the work that he is doing in you. For 



THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 



89 



" if, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the 
death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be 
SAVED by his life." Rom. v. 1 0. " For as Christ was once 
offered to bear the sin of many, so, to them that look for him, 
he shall appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation I " 
Heb. ix. 28, 



90 



CHAPTER IL 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 



Salvation is a word of no small compass. It comprises 
the deliverance of the sinner, as from all without him, so 
equally from all within him, that is contrary to God. It in- 
cludes his San ctifi cation as well as his Redemption. The same 
sacrifice and sprinkling of blood which saved the Israelites from 
the destroying angel, also consecrated them as the people of 
God. The same arm which brought them out from the ty- 
ranny of Pharaoh put them under the rule of Moses. And 
the same Covenant which pledged to them God's protection 
imposed upon them God's law. 

Hence, therefore. He who was sent to be the Liberator, not 
of one people only, but of the race of man, was sent to be 
therewith their Ruler also. He v/hose proper name is 
" Jesus," to indicate his Office as the Saviour of the lost, has 
equally the title of " Christ," to remind us of his Dignity as 
the Sovereign of the saved. We " believe in Jesus Christ." 

To understand which title it is important to consider first. 
The leading idea contained in the Scripture notion of the Mes- 
siah, or Christ. We must remember that the great object of 
God in separating the Jewish nation to be his peculiar people 
was to establish among them, in specimen as it were, the mani- 
fested supremacy of the divine Authority and Law — the Theo- 
cracy, or government by God, and not by man ; or by man, 
no otherwise than as the representative and minister of God. 
The Lord himself was enthroned between the cherubim in the 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 91 

presence-chamber of his sanctuary. His Will, graven on the 
Tables of the testimony occupied the judgment-seat, and 
formed the source of all authority, the court of final ap- 
peal, for his ministers, the priests. " The Lord was their de- 
fence, and the holy One of Israel was their King." Ps. Ixxxix. 
1 8. And even when the Israelites, entirely misapprehending 
the very point of distinction between themselves and other 
nations, and losing out of sight the special object for which 
God had chosen them to himself, demanded and obtained a 
king like to the people round them ; even then, this king was 
invested with no proper authority of his own, but only as the 
Minister, Lieutenant, Viceroy, of the Lord : — anointed to his 
office by God's holy oil — sustained in it by God's arm — in- 
structed for its fulfilment, by God's law. It was the dwine 
Law that was still to reign, by the administration of the hu- 
man executive ; and for this reason it was expressly enjoined 
by God that each successive king, " when he sat upon the 
throne of his kingdom should write him a copy of this Law, in 
a book, out of that which was before the Priests and Levites, 
and it should be with him, and he should read therein all the 
days of his life, that he might learn to fear the Lord his God, 
to keep all the words of His Law, and His statutes to do them ; 
that his heart might not be lifted up above his brethren, and 
that he might not turn aside from the commandment, to the 
right hand or to the left." Deut. xvii. 18, 19. So that under 
every form of Regimen the word of the prophet was still true, 
" The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the 
Lord is our King !" Isa. xxxiii. 22. 

But this special constitution, established on a small scale 

over the people of Israel, was but the pattern and the symbol 

of that general government under which alone all nations 

K can attain true prosperity, and to which therefore it is God's 



92 THE DIGNITY OF CHEIST. 

Only as God's Will reigns supreme ; only as all offices, national 
and domestic, public and private, are held and administered 
under the living- presence and influence of the divine Law; 
so that God, though visible no where, be effective every where 
— every heart his throne, and every nation the dwelling-place of 
his glory ;* — only then, can " mercy and truth meet together, 
righteousness and peace kiss each other ; and the Lord give 
that which is good, and the earth yield her increase." This 
is that blessed consummation, of which the whole Mosaic 
constitution was but the type — the principle of which, it 
illustrated, and the promise of which, it proclaimed. 

And therefore, amidst the many imperfections of this faint 
" shadow of good things to come ;" this temporary model of 
the eternal kingdom of God ; the prophets looked out ear- 
nestly towards the pure Idea of which it was the feeble repre- 
sentation, and proclaimed in faith and hope, the ultimate ex- 
tension and perfection of the divine plan ; — its extension, 
to embrace all peoples — its perfection, by the setting on the 
throne of universal dominion, no merely human sovereign, no 
race of kings, but One who should be the brightness of Je- 
hovah's glory and the express image of his person, the mani- 
fested Will and Law of the Most High ; who should destroy 
every enemy of God and man, and gather together in himself 
the wills and hearts of all men, to consecrate them as the 
habitation of God, to constitute them a kingdom of priests, a 
chosen generation, an holy nation, a peculiar people, an eternal 
excellency, a joy of many generations. 

* This idea is very remarkably expressed by' Isaiah when he prophesies that 
" in that day," the favoured Israel shall be reckoned only as one with her now- 
bitterest enemies, Egypt and Assyria, and the same blessing shall be equally 
pronounced on all these nations. " In that day shall Israel be the third with 
Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land ; whom the 
Lord of hosts shall bless saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria 
the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance." Isa. xix. 24, 25. 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 93 

This then is the Scriptural Idea of the Messiah or Christ. 
He is set forth as God's King ; set up by His authority, and 
subjugating all things to His law. For " The Messiah," in 
Hebrew, and " The Christ," in Greek, signifies " The Anoint- 
ed One," " The King." When the Lord first gave a king to 
Israel, he commanded Samuel, saying, " To-morrow, about 
this time, I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, 
and thou shalt anoint (messhachj him to be captain over my 
people Israel, that he may save my people out of the hand of 
the Philistines." 1 Sam. ix. 16. And when he chose David 
for his representative upon the throne of Israel, he said, 
" Arise, anoint (messhachj him, for this is he. Then Samuel 
took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his bre- 
thren." 1 Sam. xvi. 12, 13. And therefore when the Pro- 
phets speak of Him who was to be emphatically The King, 
of whom those monarchs were but the type, they call him by 
this title of " the Anointed One," " the Christ." " The 
kings of the earth," says the Psalmist, " set themselves, and 
the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against 
His Anointed (Messhiach) ; — yet have I set my King upon 
my holy hill of Zion." Ps. ii. 2. " Know therefore," says the 
Angel to Daniel, " that from the going forth of the command- 
ment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah (the 
anointed One, Messhiach) the Prince, shall be seven weeks 
and threescore and two weeks." Dan. ix. 25. 

And now then we are prepared to understand, in the second 
place, why this title of " Messiah,'' or " Christ," is assigned 
to Jesus, our Redeemer. 

For he is the Reality of the Idea which this title indicates. 
As the Saviour he is therefore the Christ. As the Antagonist 
and Conqueror of the great Adversary of God, he is the Vin- 
dicator of the Authority of God. As the Redeemer, he ac- 



94 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 



complishes the whole extent of that magnificent work which is 
entrusted to the Christ, the Restoration of the world to God. 
Such an one he was foretold to be, long- before his birth : 
such an one he showed himself to be, throughout his life ; 
such an one he was declared to be hj his exaltation ; such an 
one he has proved himself to be, b}^ his providential visitations 
from his throne in heaven ; and such an one he will fully ma- 
nifest himself to be, when he shall come again to judge the 
quick and the dead. 

Jesus was foretold to he the Christ, long before his birth. 
That is, the same person who in many passages of the Pro- 
phets, and by many distinct marks, is announced to appear 
when Jesus appeared, to be born as Jesus was born, to do the 
works which Jesus did, and to experience the treatment which 
Jesus experienced, — this same person is also announced, by 
those same prophets, under the name and character of the 
" Messiah," or " Christ." And the particulars predicted of 
the one person, the human sufferer, with his humiliation and 
death, are so inseparably interwoven with the particulars pre- 
dicted of the other person, the divine Conqueror, that no 
possible method of escaping the conclusion that he who was 
Jesus, the Saviour, must be also Christ, the King, has been 
discovered, even by the most inveterate adversaries of this 
truth, the Jews themselves ; but the assumption to which their 
commentators have recourse, of two Messiahs, of difi'erent 
character, and fates, to appear at different times upon the 
earth.* For observe, that he who is foretold by Isaiah in one 
section of his prophecies, to be born of a virgin, and be called 

*" " Our rabbin say that another king, not of the seed of David, shall ap- 
pear before the Messiah, tlie son of David, and him they call Messiah the son 
of Joseph." Men. Ham. 81. " Messiah the son of Joseph shall manifest 
himself first in Galilee ! " Jalkut. 142. " Messiah the son of Joseph shall be 
killed with the sword of Gog." Ibid. 141. 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST 95 

" Immanuel," which (as we saw in the preceding chapter) is 
fulfilled in Jesus, — this same being is foretold by the same 
prophet, in the same section, as " the Prmce of Peace, of the 
increase of whose government upon the throne of David there 
shall be no end." Isa. ix. 6, 7. He, again, who is spoken of 
by Micah as coming forth from Bethlehem Ephratah, (the 
very place where Jesus was born) is declared, in the same 
sentence, to be that "" Ruley- of Israel whose goings forth have 
been of old, from everlasting." Mic. v. 2. While, conversely, 
of him who is announced to Daniel by the angel as " Messiah 
the Prince," it is declared immediately after, " Messiah shall 
be cut ofi", but not for himself" (Dan. ix. 26) ; — even as Jesus 
was cut off, but not for his own sin but the sin of the world. 
And so we might go on, multiplying instances of such coinci- 
dence, till we come down to the announcement of the angels at 
the conception, and at the birth, of Jesus. The same angel 
who appeared to Joseph and declared to him, '^ Mary thy wife 
shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for 
he shall save his peojyle from their sins ;" Matt. i. 20, 21 ; 
had previously declared to Mary herself, at the Annunciation, 
" Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring 
forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus, and he shall be 
great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest,'' (a special 
title of the Christ, derived from the second Psalm) " and the 
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, 
and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Luke i. 31, 32. 
And just in the same way does the angel, in his proclamation 
to the Shepherds, join together as meeting in the new-bom 
babe of Bethlehem, those two particulars, of his Office as the 
Saviour, and his Dignity as the Christ. " Behold, I bring 
you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people ; 
for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, 
which is Christ the Lord!" Luke ii. 10, 11. 



96 THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 

But not less, secondly, did Jesus show ?dmself to he the Christ, 
throughout his life. For recollect only, what is the leading 
Idea of the Christ as he is represented in the Old Testament ; 
what the prominent feature of his character and work, to which 
all others are subordinated, and in the light of which they 
must be viewed. It is that of the Manifester, and the Vindica- 
tor of the divine Will — who was to enter into conflict with every 
opponent of that will, and be the visible champion of the invi- 
sible God. And what was the whole life of Jesus, but the 
exhibition of this — from first to last, just this? He came into 
the world as the only-begotten of the Father, the Declarer of 
his grace and truth; (John i. 18) so reflective of his Will 
that to know him was to know the Father also, and he that 
saw him saw the Father. And for the maintenance of this 
Will, of which he was the visible image, he did battle daily, 
(not indeed with carnal weapons, but with those which are 
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,) 
against the Devil and his temptations — against the Pharisees 
and Scribes, with Herod, and with Pontius Pilate, the Agents 
of that wicked One — and against the dulness and the earthli- 
ness of his own disciples. And each victory that he gained, 
while yet on earth, over the malice of God's Adversary, be- 
came a proof of his Dignity as the Christ. He appeals to this 
himself. As, for example, in the twelfth chapter of St. Mat- 
thew. He had cast out demons. The Pharisees insinuated, 
This is done by Satan's help. His answer is, Will Satan cast out 
Satan ? And his conclusion therefore : If by a power contrary 
to that of Satan I have thus crippled Satan — '^ if I cast out 
devils by the Spirit of God," that divine power which is given 
to me as the Christ, — then verily " the kingdom of God is come 
unto you :" the triumph of the divine Will over all opposing 
wills, which it is the Messiah's office to effect, is already being 
anticipated by me, (this is the force of the original term) 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. ^ 9/ 

has come upon you sooner than you thought for, (e^^a- 
(TEv £^' v/iclq) is present in my person, manifests itself by my 
acts. Matt. xii. 24 — 28. Just as he tells his enemies in ano- 
ther passage, (Luke xvii. 20) when they demanded of him 
when the kingdom of God should come, *' The kingdom of 
God cometh not with observation"* — it is not that display of 
worldly might and pomp which you are longing for, like the 
triumphal entry of an earthly monarch, with reference to which 
men may exclaim. He is come I There he is I — " but the king- 
dom of God is already among you :" t in my person God's su- 
premacy is already manifesting itself; in my person you have 
already before you that great King ; in the unpretending, pa- 
tient individual whom you are despising and rejecting, the 
Christ is already come I 

And hence you find the lowly Jesus, not only claiming for 
himself this awful Dignity of the Vindicator of God's supre- 
macy, the Minister of judgment and discomfiture on his great 
adversary, but also devoutly rejoicing, and praising God, on 
each successive exercise of that judgment which by his minis- 
tration, while yet on earth, took place. When the seventy dis- 
ciples, on whom he had conferred the power of casting out de- 
mons and thus breaking the power of Satan, '* returned to him 
with joy, saying Lord, even the devils are subject to us through 
thy name ; he said unto them, I beheld Satan fall like lightning 
from heaven ! " Luke x. 18. And when it pleased the Father 

* Msra 'ree^aryi^riffieds, with earthly pomp. Msra Ti^iipavitots u,v6^ojviv'/ji, 
with such conspicuousness as men look for and delight in. Euthymius. " Is 
not ushered in with parade." Campbell. 

f 'Evrflf vfjt,uv. Cf. Xen. Anab. i. 10. 3. hros uLtuv, i. e. in their camp. 
Not, " within you," for Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, and in no sense 
could the kingdom of God be said to be in their hearts. So Beza explains 
it, "apudvos" Le Clerc, and Beausobre, "au milieu de vous." Whitby, 
" is even now among you ; — is come unto you ! " So \t tif^uv. Matt. xx. 26. " It 
shall not be so among you.'''' 

F 



98 THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 

to calm his troubled spirit, anxious for the honour of God's 
name, by assuring him " I have both glorified it, and will glo- 
rify it again," then he exclaimed with holy exultation, " Now 
is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this 
world be cast out !" John xii. 31. The whole work of Jesus 
upon earth, as it was a glorifying of God's name — a proclama- 
tion of his law — a vindication of his character — a bringing 
back his lost children— a beating down the power of his adver- 
sary ; was by these very acts a manifestation of his Dignity as 
THE Christ. 

And such, moreover, was Jesus declared to he hy his resur- 
rection from the dead. Then it was that the dignity of Jesus 
as the Christ shone out, not merely, as it had done before, to 
those who could appreciate it, in its moral splendour, but even 
to the grosser-minded multitude, who have no conception of 
Dignity and Sovereignty but that of overpowering Force. In 
the sensible miracles which made terrible his death and coming 
to life again, and in the manifest largesses of miraculous energy 
which, like a triumphant conqueror, he showered down upon 
his followers when he had ascended into heaven, there was 
proof for all men that this Jesus was indeed the Christ. 
" Truly," cried the Centurion who was watching Jesus, when 
he saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, 
" Truly this was the Son of God !" Matt, xxvii. 54. " This 
Jesus,"" cried St. Peter boldly to the multitude on the day of 
Pentecost, appealing to the triumph which his Master had 
obtained, " This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are 
witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God ex- 
alted, and having received of the Father the promise of the 
Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye both see and 
hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he 
saith himself, The Tord said unto my Lord,'' (the promised 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 99 

Messiah) " Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes 
thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know 
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus vohom ye have 
crucified, both hord and Christ !" Acts ii. 32 — 36. 

Again, the blessed Jesus has proved himself to be the Christ 
hy his providential visitations from his throne in heaven, To 
such a proof he referred his enemies when he stood before the 
Council. As he had said to the Jews, " When ye have lifted 
up the Son of Man then shall ye know that I am He'' — i. e. 
the Christ ; so when interrogated by the high priest, " Art 
thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed ?" his answer is " I 
am : and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand 
of power and coming in the clouds of heaven :" (Matt.xxvi.64) 
—coming, that is, by those providential visitations whereby 
from the throne of heaven he should vindicate God's supre- 
macy and inflict discomfiture on God's enemies. 

For both those terms, the " coming " and the coming " in a 
cloud "or "in the clouds of heaven " are frequently used in 
Scripture of God's providential interferences to overwhelm 
the wicked, and by tremendous catastrophes in their history 
to proclaim to all. There is a God that judgeth the earth ! 
Look first at Isaiah xix. I, and you will see how remarkably 
similar is the language there with that of Jesus in the passage 
quoted above. " The burden of Egypt ;" says the Prophet : 
" Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come 
into Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his 
presence^' {i. e, at his coming among them) " and the heart of 
Egypt shall melt in the midst of it — and the Egyptians will I 
give over into the hand of a cruel lord, and a fierce king 
shall rule over them, saith the Lord." Here, you see, God's 
" riding on a cloud," and " coming" into Egypt, is the prophe- 
tic symbol for his bringing about in that country certain eve7tts 

F 2 



100 THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 

of history which should inflict on it the punishment it deserved 
for its opposition to his people — the symbol, in a word, for its 
invasion, by Sennacherib^ and all the calamities which it suf- 
fered about that period from intestine anarchy. 

Then turn to Isaiah xxxiv. 1 — 8, and you will find the de- 
scent of righteous retribution on the land of Eden described in 
terms similar, not only to those of Jesus already referred to, 
but also to the still more startling figures of speech with which 
he introduces a similar declaration to his disciples, when he 
says (Luke xxi. 25 — 27) " There shall be signs in the sun 
and in the moon and in the stars : and upon the earth distress 
of nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the waves roaring ; 
men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those 
things which are coming on the earth ; for the powers of 
heaven shall be shaken : and then shall they see the Son of 
man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." For, 
what says the Prophet concerning the desolation of Edom? 
" Come near ye nations to hear, and hearken ye people ; 
let the earth hear and all that is therein, the world and all 
things that come forth of it, for the indignation of the Lord is 
upon all nations^ and his fury upon all their armies ; he hath 
utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the 
slaughter. And the mountains shall be melted with their 
blood ; and all the host of heaven shall he dissolved, and the 
heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll ; and all their host 
shall fall down,* as the leaf falleth off* from the vine, and as a 
falling fig from the fig-tree : for my sword shall be bathed 
in heaven ; behold it shall come down upon Idumea, and 
upon the people of my curse, to judgment; — foi^.it is the day 
of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences " (i. e, 

* — "as moon and stars 

Glance rapidly along the clouded heavens, 

When winds are blowing strong.'''' — Wordsworth. 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 101 

the time in which he shall exact reprisals, shall execute 
strict retribution) " for the controversy of Zion." Isa. xxxiv. 
1—8. 

Compare with this, yet further, 2 Samuel xxii. 1 — 12, and 
you will find David commending " the Lord's deliverance of 
him from his enemies, out of the hand of Saul " — a plain his- 
torical fact, exhibiting the interposition of God's providential 
care in his behalf — in language of just similar character. 
*' In my distress " he says, v. 7, " I called upon the Lord, and 
cried to my God, and he did hear my voice out of his holy 
temple : then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations 
of heaven were moved and shook, because he was wroth ; — he 
bowed the heavens also and came down, and darkness was 
under his feet ; and he rode upon a cherub and did fly ; and 
he WAS SEEN upon the wings of the wind ; and he made dark- 
ness his pavilion round about him, dark waters and thick 
clouds of the skies. The Lord thundered from heaven, and 
the Most High uttered his voice. And he sent out arrows 
and scattered them; lightning and discomfited them. And 
the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the 
world were discovered, at the rebuking of the Lord, at the 
blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from above, he 
took me ; he delivered me from my strong enemy and from 
them that hated me." 

And so again, once more, when the Psalmist would cele- 
brate in the most magnificent imagery the Supremacy/ of God, 
the manifestation of his dominion over all the earth, his 
revelation of himself as the Destroyer of his enemies and the 
glory of his people, he thus breaks forth : " The Lord 
reigneth, let the earth rejoice ; let the multitude of the isles 
be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him, 
righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. 
A fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round 



102 THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 

about. His lightnings enlightened the world ; the earth saw and 
trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the 
Lordf at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The 
heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see 
his glory." Ps. xcvii. 1 — 6. 

In all which passages, you perceive, the image is the same. 
The visitation of God, his coming forth out of his place to 
vindicate his insulted authority, and assert his dignity and 
power, is likened to the sweep of the tempest and the rushing 
of the storm — to the wild careering of the hurricane which 
mixes heaven and earth,* and changes the face of sun and 
moon and stars, and makes all nature toss in dread confusion. 
" God," says the prophet Nahum, " is jealous, and the Lord 
revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on 
his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. 
The Lord is slow to anger, yet he is great in power and will 
not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the 
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his 
feet. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, 
and the earth is burned at his presence, yea the world and 
all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indigna- 
tion? And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? 
His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown 
down by him I" Nahum i. 1 — 6. 

And see then with what justice our Lord applies such 
tremendous imagery to represent the providential visitations 
which, as the Christ, he would bring upon the world ; in 
which visitations both his friends and enemies should behold 
the manifest proofs of his exalted dignity. None of the 
judgments which the prophets depict in such magnificent 

* " The whirlwinds'" (of Persia) "carried away in their vortex, sand, 
branches, and the stubble of the fields, and really appeared to make a commu- 
nication between the earth and tlie clouds.'''' — Morier, in Home, 3, 68. 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 103' 

terms— not the overthrow of Saul — not the vengeance upon 
Egypt — not the destruction of Edom— not the most awful 
manifestations of God's sovereignty — not the most wither- 
ing march of his all-devastating indignation — at all came up 
to that visitation of the devoted city Jerusalem, that overthrow 
of the Jewish state and polity, that terrible judgment on the 
crucifiers of the Lord of glory, that scattering of the people 
over all the face of the earth, which Jesus manifestly has in 
view, in his prophecy on the Mount of Olives, when he de- 
clares concerning the Temple whose goodly stones and gifts 
his disciples were admiring, " There shall not be left one stone 
upon another that shall not be thrown down ;" (Luke xxi. 6) 
— when he foretells concerning the splendid City which lay 
stretched out before them, " It shall be trodden down of the 
Gentiles ;" (Luke xxi. 24) — when he assures his disciples that 
in this way, and hy these signs his Dignity as the Christ should 
be made visible, even to the generation that rejected him, even 
to the disciples who were wondering at his words ! " Then 
shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power 
and great glory." " Verily I say unto you This generation 
shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall 
pass away, but my words shall not pass away I" Luke xxi. 27, 
32, 33. 

But then, once more, as certainly will the blessed Jesus 
fully manifest himself to be the Christ when he shall come again 
to jud^e the quick and dead. For those his providential visita- 
tions, though they respond to, do not exhaust, the meaning of 
those grand predictions of His coming in the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory. Even that great historical event, 
which shewed the power of the exalted Jesus, — the destruction 
of the Temple, the city, the polity, the very existence, as a na- 
tion, of his adversaries — this was, after all, not the fulfilment 



104 THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 

but only the first instalment of the threatenings of God : it was a 
prophecy by facts — an anticipative symbol — a rehearsal on the 
narrow stage of Judaea of that awful catastrophe which must 
finally come upon the whole earth, when Christ shall come 
again, at the end of the world, to judge the quick and dead. 
For observe, that this same phraseology which (as we have 
seen) finds its first application in the events which took place 
within thirty years of our Lord's employment of it, — in his 
providential visitation for the punishment of the Jews — this is 
used again by his beloved Apostle, after that catastrophe had 
taken place, to indicate that further, final manifestation of the 
Dignity of his Master, as the Christ, which, in prophetic vision, 
far off as it was in fact, he saw close to his astonished eye. 
" Behold," he says, " he cometh with clouds ; and every eye 
shall see him ; and they also which pierced him ; and all the 
kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so. 
Amen ! " Rev. i. 7. And herein St. John does but re-echo 
that original prophecy of the book of Daniel, in which this 
final triumph of God's sovereignty over all opposing might, 
and the merging all the kingdoms of the world in the king- 
dom of our Lord and of his Christ, is portrayed. " I saw, in 
the night," says the enraptured Seer, " visions ; and one 
like unto the Son of man* came with the clouds of 
HEAVEN, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought 
him near before him, and there was given him dominion and 

*' It is to this passage that our Lord manifestly has respect, when he calls 
himself so frequently " The Son of man" — That being in human form whom 
the prophet beheld invested with the sovereignty of the world. And thus he 
clearly claims for himself the Dignity of the Messiah, by the very title which 
he ordinarily assumes. For this term, from its connection, in this prophetic 
vision, with the Personage thus set over the kingdom of heaven, became a 
proper name of the Christ ; in the same way that the Jews call him " Mes- 
siah- Anani," i. e. " the cloud-borne Messiah," from the other feature in this 
same passage " the Son of man came with the clouds (afiani) of heaven." The 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 105 

glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages 
should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall 
not be destroyed." Dan. vii. 13,14. O glorious prospect ! 
O triumphant consummation I Well might the oppressed 
and insulted Jesus stand before the chief priests and elders 
unmoved by fear and undisturbed by indignation, when 
there swept before his eye the vision of that final triumph^ 
which was to him as sure as though it were that mo- 
ment bursting on the council; well might he calmly say, — 
without eagerness, yet without hesitation ; without bravado, yet 
with no ambiguous answer to the solemn question pressed upon 
him. Art thou the Christ, — " I AM : and ye shall see the 
Son of man" (that very being spoken of by the prophet 
Daniel, and to be realized in my history) " sitting on the right 
hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven ! " Mark 
xiv. 62. Jesus was indeed a gentle Sovereign, but not less a 
dignified one. He was the Prince of Peace, but not the less 
of Power. He came to earth " meek and riding on an ass," 
but not the less shall he come on his " white horse" of tri- 
umph. He sought not his own exaltation, but he will work 
the establishment of the truth, and justice, and sovereignty of 
God. He did not break the bruised reed nor quench the smok- 
ing flax, but he must ultimately bring forth judgment unto 
victory ! He sought not his own glory, but there was one 
who sought and judged, and that one had said, " Yet have I 

close connection of the title with the Dignity, in our Lord's mind, shows itself 
especially in Matt. xxvi. 63, 64 ; for when the High Priest adjured him say- 
ing, " Tell us whether thou be the Christ^'' his answer points directly to this 
Avhole description of the Christ in Daniel : " Thou hast said : " and though 
my present condition may seem inconsistent with that dignity yet " neverilie- 
less, hereafter ye shall see the Son of man,'''' spoken of by the prophet, and re- 
alized in me, " sitting at the right hand of power, and coviing in the clouds of 
heaven."" 

P 5 



106 THE DIGNITY OP CHRIST. 

set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. Ask of me and I 
shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the utmost 
parts of the earth for thy possession I " There shall come a 
time when all shall recognize that Jesus is indeed the Christ — 
when all shall see the final triumph of the Champion, over the 
Adversary, of God — when the Dragon, that old serpent, which 
is the Devil and Satan, shall be bound for a thousand years — 
when there shall be heard a great voice of much people, saying 
" Alleluia ! Salvation and glory and honour and power unto 
the Lord our God ! Alleluia ! For the Lord God omnipo- 
tent reign eth I " 

And where, then, reader, shall you be at that awful day ? 
O put the question earnestly to your conscience ! Will you 
be among those who shall swell that exulting chorus, or — 
among those who shall be trampled down for evermore ? 
You need not, for the answering this question, strive, with 
painful effort, to throw forward your imagination into all the 
splendours of that awful scene — you have only to consider what 
is the 2yostm'e of your mind towards Jesus now. The present 
is the index, the anticipation, of the future. What Christ is 
to you in this world he will be to you in that age to come. 
And Who, then, is on the Lord's side at this moment? 
Who ? — Who fears, who loves, who adores, who strives 
to please him as the Christ? Who burns for his honour? 
Who labours for his gloi'y ? Who makes effort, in his per- 
sonal character, and through all his sphere of life, to cause 
him now to reign — his kingdom, by anticipation to come — his 
will, in real, however imperfect, commencement, to be done ? — 
And who does not do this ? Who puts off this ? Who is 
ashamed of this? Who is indifferent to this? Who counts 
it overwrought enthusiasm to insist on this ! O for a true 
and faithful answer, in the sight of God I O for an answer, 
if you are indeed Christ's follower, such as shall rejoice, em- 



THE DIGNITY OF CHRIST. 107 

bolden, animate your soul ! O for an answer, — if, reader, 
you are not yet Christ's — if you are careless, worldly, irre- 
ligious — such as by its awful resonance upon your startled 
conscience, shall wake you into dread, humiliation, repentance, 
permanent conversion ; an immediate passing from the side of 
Satan to the side of Christ — from the inheritance of " fire and 
brimstone storm and tempest" to the inheritance of "power 
and great glory ! " 



108 



CHAPTER III. 



THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 



When the Ethiopian eunuch said to Peter, " What doth 
hinder me to be baptized?" and the Apostle had rephed to 
him " If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest," his 
ready, answer was, " I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God.'' In these words were comprised his confession of 
faith. The belief, then, of the primitive Church, the belief of 
one of the earliest converts of that Church, on which his recep- 
tion into it by baptism was vouchsafed, was a belief in the 
Redeemer, not simply as " Jesus," — /. e. as the Saviour from 
sin ; not only as " Christ" — i. e, the promised Messiah or Sove- 
reign of the world ; but, furthermore, as over and above this 
" Jesus," and this " Christ," " the Son of God." 

Here then we have, as the shorter Scriptural form of bap- 
tismal confession, the very words which we have learned from 
infancy in our Creed, as part of the faith in which we, too, 
have been baptized. " I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only 
Son." And of this confession, having already considered the 
First Title, which indicates the Office of the Redeemer; and 
the Second, which indicates his Dignity; we have now to pause 
upon the third, which indicates his Nature. 

Now, in considering this title, " God's only Son," as applied 
to him who is both Jesus, and Christ, the question for us will 
be in what sense it is so applied. The fact of its application, 



THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 109 

in numerous passages, is undeniable. The extent of the Idea 
expressed hy it is the matter for investigation. 

In pursuing which we must remind ourselves, at the outset, 
that the enquiry is purely an historical one. It is not What 
may we, or others, suppose, from any previous notions of our 
own, to be the probable meaning of the phrase; but it is 
simply. What was the meaning of the phrase in the minds of 
those who used it, and to the minds of those to whom they 
used it. There can be no just interpretation of any ancient 
records but the Historical one. The grammatical meaning of 
words and phrases depends upon their use, and that use varies 
according to the relation in which they stand to the person 
speaking, — the subject he is speaking of, — the men whom he 
is speaking to, — and the circumstances under which he speaks. 
And all these are matters to be ascertained by historical en- 
quiry ; by throwing back our mind into the time, the place, 
the company, all the circumstances, in connection with which 
the terms were used. The same sound may be uttered in pro- 
nouncing a Chinese word, and an English word ; but the idea 
conveyed by that sound to the mind of a Chinese may be 
totally different from the idea conveyed by the same sound 
to the mind of an Englishman. And just similarly with 
phrases. The same phrase, in the mouth of those who first 
used it, may have conveyed a very different sense from that in 
which others may choose to employ it. And it is the sense in 
which they first used it which is to be the single topic of en- 
quiry, for every fair and just interpreter of an ancient record. 

Let us ask, then, First, "WTiat was the meaning of the phrase 
" The Son of God," m the mind of those who used it. 

We need scarcely mention that it is the use of the distinc- 
tive phrase " The Son of God," as applied to one individual, 
Jesus Christ, of which we now speak. It is not uncommon 



110 THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 

in Scripture to call men " Sons of God" on account of their 
piety, or their peculiar privilege as received into His special 
family. The angels also are called " Sons of God," as be- 
longing to that higher family of purely spiritual beings, com- 
prehended in the sphere of light in which God dwells. But 
the question is about the meaning of this title when used in 
the singular, of one individual^ and of him, moreover, in 
various relations, and with various circumstances, which ren- 
der it peculiar to him. 

And here we shall find that Jesus is called in Scripture 
" The Son of God," first, to distinguish him, from all human 
beings^ as the heaven-descended Messiah, or Christ. You 
know the exalted notion conveyed in the Bible, and carefully 
cherished by the thoughtful Jews, of their promised Deliverer 
and King. This personage they expected to be of more than 
human origin. They saw full well that earthly might was 
utterly insufiicient for their help'; that not a David with all 
his valour — nor a Solomon with all his wisdom — nor even a 
Moses with all his miraculous endowments, could avail either 
to raise their nation from its debasement, or to raise the indi- 
viduals of that nation from their corruption. And therefore 
they looked higher than man, and waited for a King who 
should be more than man. Take a single proof of this. One 
Jewish commentator on Isaiah says, upon that declaration of 
the fifty-second chapter, Behold my Servant shall be exalted, 
and be extolled^, and be very high, " this Servant is the King 
Messiah, who is more exalted than Abraham, though he could 
say I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord ; and more exalted 
than Moses, though it is written of him. Carry thou this peo- 
ple in thy bosom ; for Messiah is exalted above all the fathers^ 
And again ; another commentator : — " Messiah shall be 
greater than all the world, for he shall be the Lord of the 
whole earth." From which expectation arose the objection of 



THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 



Ill 



the Jews to Jesus, (John vii. 27.) " We know this man, 
whence he is " — his merely human origin and birth-place 
seem clear to us^, — " but when Christ cometh, no man 
knoweth whence he is," — we expect him to be higher, and 
from a higher source, than any mortal man. 

Nor were these expectations the offspring of their own mind; 
produced by their sense of need, or their desire of aggrandise- 
ment. They were, you know, authorised to their full extent, 
by the promises of God himself. God himself had said con- 
cerning his Anointed, " I will make him my First-born, higher 
than the kings of the earth." Ps. Ixxxix. 27. God himself 
had vouchsafed to Daniel that prophetic vision of his descend- 
ing, as from heaven itself, to help his people : — " I saw in the 
night visions, and Behold, one like the Son of Man came with 
the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days, and they 
brought him near before Him, and there was given him domi- 
nion and glory and a kingdom." Dan. vii. 13, 14. 

Now it is as marking out this heaven-horn personage, the 
Christ, above all human prophets, priests, and kings, that the 
phrase " The Son of God" is applied in Scripture to our blessed 
Lord. When Peter and his brother Apostles would have 
honoured Jesus, on the Mount of Transfiguration, along with 
Moses, as the mediator of the law, and Elijah as the repre- 
sentative of the prophets, then there came a voice from the 
cloud that overshadowed them — the voice of God — distinguish- 
ing him as far above those holy men, and saying " This is my 
beloved Son, hear ye him." Matt, xvii. 5. And when St. 
Paul wishes to mark out Jesus as distinct from all the priests 
who ministered according to the Jewish ritual, he does so 
by declaring that " the law maketh men high-priests which 
have infirmity ; but the word of the oath, which was since 
the law, maketh The Son who is consecrated for evermore." 
Heb. vii. 28. While, by the same antithesis included in this 



112 THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 

same title, he declares his superiority over Moses, the great 
Lawgiver, and Minister of God. " This man was counted 
worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath 
builded the house hath more honour than the house;" where 
you see our Lord recognized as the very founder of that 
family of God's people, of which family Moses, their human 
lawgiver, was only a part ; an upper servant, as it were, in the 
household of the Lord. For " Moses verily was faithful " (or 
entrusted with authority) " in all God's house, as a servant^ — 
but Christ as a Son over his own house" Heb. iii. 3 — 6. 
Nor less strikingly is Jesus distinguished by this title, in this 
sense, as superior, not only to all human lawgivers, prophets, 
priests, but also to all kings. For when the Angel had de- 
clared to Mary concerning her son, " He shall be great, and 
shall be called The Son of the Highest, and the Lord God 
shall give unto him the throne of his father David ; and of 
his kingdom there shall be no end ;" you find, from the words 
which quickly follow, that this title was to be for him the 
indication of a heavenly origin : " The Holy Ghost shall 
come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over- 
shadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born 
of thee shall be called The Son of God." Luke i. 32, 35. 

But more than this. This title is used, in the second place, 
to distinguish our blessed Lord from all super-human, or 
angelic beings. This superiority also was expected by the 
Jewish Rabbin to characterize the Christ. " The Messiah " 
they affirm " is higher than the angels that minister before 
the throne of God ; for though it is said of them (Ezek. i, 18) 
They were so high that they were dreadful ; yet Messiah is 
still higher than they." And again, " It is of thee O our 
Messiah, that it is written. Kiss the Son ; for thou art Lord 
over Israel, Lord of the angels that minister before the throne, 



THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 



113 



the Son of the Most High, the Son of God, and the habita- 
tion of his love." 

And in this sense is Jesus called " The Son of God " 
by St. Paul ; who claims for him this superiority, from this 
very title being given to him in the Old Testament. " Being 
made so much better than the angels as he hath obtained a 
more excellent name than they ; for unto which of the angels 
said he at any time Thou art my Son, this day have I 
begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a Father, and 
he shall be to me a Son. And again, when he bringeth 
in the first-begotten into the world he saith, And let all 
the angels of God worship him." Heb. i. 13,14. Nothing 
can be clearer than that the Apostle uses here this title, 
" Son of God," to distinguish Jesus as superior to all angelic 
beings. 

But we must go yet further and observe that this title is 
used of our Lord to distinguish, and exalt him above all con- 
ceivable forms of created being, — as difi'erent from them not 
in origin only — or in degree, — but specially in kind ; as before 
all creatures in time, above them in nature — nay himself the 
Author of their being. For nothing less than this is asserted 
by St. Paul to the Colossians when he says " God hath 
delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us 
into the kingdom of his dear Son, who is the image of the 
invisible God, the first-born of every creature; for by him 
were all things created, that are in heaven and in earth, 
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, 
or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him 
and for him ; and he is before all things, and by him all 
things consist." Col. i. 13—17. The title, "Son of God " 
distinguishes our blessed Lord as superior, and anterior, to all 
created being. 



114 THE NATUKE OF CHRIST. 

And therefore we stop not here ; but go on, lastly, to the 
fact, included, indeed, in that just asserted, but also sepa- 
rately declared in the Word of God, that the title of " The 
Son of God " equals our blessed Lord with the Deity himself. 
It points him out as partaking of the Father's essence, un- 
created and divine. In this sense it is clearly used by St. 
Paul when he declares that " God who at sundry times and 
in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the 
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, 
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he 
made the worlds; who being the brightness of his Fathers 
glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all 
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself 
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty 
on high." Heb. i. 1 — 3. And in this sense does our Lord 
himself call God, peculiarly and so as he is not to any other 
being, his Father ; and asserts his participation in his Father's 
mind, and will, and living energy, as one with him. " I and 
my Father are One." John x. 30. " As the Father hath 
life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life 
in himself." John v. 26. 

Such then is the meaning of the phrase " The Son of God," 
as applied to Christ, if we take that meaning as it manifestly 
existed in the mind of those who used it of our Lord. 

Let us now turn to a second method of Historical inter- 
pretation, and enquire what sense the phrase appears to have 
borne in the mind of those to whom it was used. For we have 
sufficient evidence in the Scripture records not only of the 
meaning affixed to this term by our Lord and his Apostles, 
but also of the sense in >vhich it was understood by those, 
their enemies even, to whom they spoke. 

A very few instances will suffice to show this. And first 



THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 115 

you will see that the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, (re- 
ceiving the phrase, of course, in the common acceptation,) 
understood by it, certainly nothing less than One of heavenly 
origin. For when the chief priests brought our Lord before 
him, declaring that " by their law he ought to die, because 
he made himself The Son of God" then, " when Pilate heard 
that saying he was the more afraid, and went again into the 
judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou?" 
John xix. 7 — 9. Whence ? observe — from earth or heaven ? 
of human origin or divine ? 

But next ; other passages show us that the Pharisees, by 
that accusation just referred to, meant, and complained of, 
more than even Pilate supposed : even that Jesus had claimed 
to be not simply of heavenly origin, but also equal with God, 
For this was the claim which had previously enraged them — 
for which they had accused him of blasphemy — and on ac- 
count of which they obstinately sought his death. And this 
claim they all agreed to be contained in our Lord's calling 
God his Father, in that special sense in which he was not the 
Father of other men. For when Jesus had said to them, 
" My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," the Evangelist 
tells us that the Jews " therefore sought the more to kill him, 
because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also 
that God was his Father," (his own special Father, the words 
really mean, Trarepa "thov,) '^making himself" (i. e. by the 
assumption of this phraseology) " equal with God," John v. 
17, 18. And on another occasion, when our Lord had said 
" My Father and I are one," the sense in which this claim 
to unity with Deity was understood by those who heard him is 
at once sufficiently apparent, by their treatment of him for it. 
" Then the Jews took up stones to stone him." And when 
Jesus answered them, " Many good works have I shewed you 
from my Father, for which of these works do ye stone me ?" 



116 THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 

their reply was, " For a good work we stone thee not, but for 
blasphemy ; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself 
God" John x. 30 — 33. And once more ; when, in solemn 
council, they laboured to make Jesus criminate himself, that 
they might pronounce him guilty of blasphemy, and thus sen- 
tence him to death ; it was simply by CK^uring him to confess 
his claim to this one title we are treating cf,^dX they accom- 
plished their deadly purpose. They sought no more. Tbey 
wanted only to get him to avow before the judgment seat, 
what he had said in general conversation, " I am The Son of 
God," and that was enough. To assume with solemn ear- 
nestness such a title was blasphemy and death. Therefore 
" The high priest said unto him, I adjure thee by the living 
God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son 
OF God." And when Jesus answered " Thou hast said" — 
i. e. Thou hast hit the truth ; I am so — " then the High 
Priest rent his clothes, saying He hath spoken blasphemy; 
what further need have we of witnesses ? behold, now ye have 
heard his blasphemy. What think ye ? And they answered 
and said, He is guilty of death !" Matt. xxvi. QS — QQ. Such 
was the sense in which the men with whom Jesus lived, con- 
versed, and acted, received the phrase " The Son of God." 

Thus then, by the two legitimate methods which the laws 
of Historical interpretation prescribe, the investigation into 
the meaning of a phrase as understood by those that use it — 
and by those to whom it is used, we have found that the 
Title, " The Son of God" ascribes to our Lord nothing less 
than the participation of the Divine Nature. All that St. 
John meant when he wrote " No man hath seen God at any 
time ; the only-begotten Son^ which is in the bosom of the Father, 
he hath declared him ; " John i. 1 8 ; and when he spoke of this 
same glorious being as " The Word, who was in the begin- 



THE NATURE OP CHRIST. 117 

ning-, and was with God, and was God." John i. 1, 2. All 
that St. Paul means when he writes, to the Philippians, that 
Christ Jesus was, before his incarnation " in the form of 
God" and possessed " equality with God." Phil. ii. 6. All, 
therefore, that the three Creeds of the Christian Church de- 
clare, from these same Scriptures of eternal truth, when 
they confess the Saviour to be not only The Son of God, but 
" The only Son " as distinguished from all human beings to 
whom the name has been, in any lower sense, applied ; and, 
yet more, " The Only-begotten Son" as distinguished from 
all heavenly beings who however superior to mankind are 
still, like them, created only, not begotten of the Father ; 
nay further, as The " Begotten before all worlds" as distin- 
guished from all creative being not by origin only, as spring- 
ing from the essence of the Deity, but in the timeless 
character of that origin ; and more still, as " God of God, 
Light of Light, very God of very God" and " one substance 
with the Father" as deriving from the primal fount of Deity 
that Nature which constitutes him, in all respects, the bright- 
ness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his 
person. O what high and elevating truth is here ! How 
does the Christian's heart expand, and the glow of adoration 
fire his soul, as he sees brightening to his view, the dazzling 
splendour of his Master's countenance, till no longer faithless 
but believing, he falls prostrate at his feet, with that one short, 
emphatic outcry of entire conviction, " My Lord and my 
God!" John xx. 28. 

For, this truth, remember, is no speculative one — no dogma 
of high metaphysical theology, which may be left to dispu- 
tants to prate about, while all the practical interests of faith, 
and hope, and charity remain the same. No I It stands out 
prominent from the book of God ; and so stands out in intimate 
relation with our peace and our salvation. Only in the Deity 



118 THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 

of Christ have we the full assurance of God's love to us — of 
our acceptance with him — of our triumph over sin. These 
are Scripture applications of this doctrine to a practical use, 
which show its essential worth. 

For how does the word of God assure us of God's love to 
us ? Just by referring- to this fact, that God gave for our 
salvation, not a man, not an angel, not any conceivable highest 
of created beings, but His Son — his only Son. " God so 
loved the world " says Jesus himself, " that he gave " (this, 
mark you, is the grand convincing proof of that love) " his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not 
perish but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. "If God be 
for us " argues Paul, " who shall be against us ? He that 
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all how 
shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? " Rom. 
viii. 31, 32. " In this was manifested the love of God towards 
us " says St. John, " because that God sent his only-begotten 
Son into the world, that we might live through him." 1 John 
iv. 9. Try to understand the phrase " God's Son," in all these 
passages, in any other sense than that which we have deduced 
from Scripture ; try if you can possibly, even for a moment, 
do such violence to your reason as to look on Jesus only as a 
man like yourself ; and then say where is the nerve and mus- 
cle of their argument ? It has all evaporated I Where the 
wondrous love of God they speak of? It has dwindled down 
into a very meagre thing ! Nay^ where is the sense — the com- 
mon sense — of a man — a mere earthly creatui'e like ourselves — 
being "sent into the world" — "given up" — "spared," — and 
all as a stupendous proof of heavenly love ? O but it is love, 
when God " sent " the partner of his nature I — " gave up " his 
beloved one ! — " spared " him who had dwelt in his bosom 
from eternity, — for a world of ignorant ungrateful, rebellious 
sinful men ! " Herein, indeed, is love ! Not that we loved 



THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 119 

God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propiti- 
ation for our sins ! " 1 John iv. 1 0. 

But on the Deity of our Saviour depends equally our as- 
surance of acceptance with God, How do we know that 
Christ's mediation is more eflFectual than that of Moses^ who 
was a man of God? his sacrifice more precious than those 
of the Levitical law, which were sacrifices of God ? his inter- 
cession more prevailing than that of Aaron, who was a priest 
of God ? Just because our Mediator, our Sacrifice, our Inter- 
cessor, is God and not mere man — and is therefore able to save 
to the uttermost those who come to God by him. This is the 
argument of St. Paul to the Hebrews : '' If the blood of bulls 
and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the un- 
clean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much 
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit " 
(in his divine and overliving Nature) " offered himself without 
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve 
the living God ? " Heb. ix. 13, 14. " And seeing then that 
we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, 
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." Heb. 
iv. 14. Christian reader! Cherish this truth, in this relation 
to your peace and hope I Glory in it. Live upon it. So 
shall you testify concerning it as Ignatius testifies, " There 
is one physician, both fleshly and spiritual ; made and not 
made ; God incarnate ; true life in death ; both of Mary and 
OF God: first passible, then impassible ; even Jesus Christ 
our Lord ! " 

And who, without this truth, can triumph over sin ? It is 
in proportion as we hope and trust, that we are nerved to 
conflict. And who can hope and trust like him who leans on 
a divine Redeemer and fights beneath the banner of a divine 
Captain ? " If the Son shall make you free " says Jesus, 
" ye shall be free indeed." John viii. 36. " Who is he that 



uo 



THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 



overcometh the world " asks John, triumphantly, " but he that 
belie veth that Jesus is The Son of God ? " 1 John v. 4. 
From a divine head I may derive divine strength. The Son 
of God can infuse into me the Spirit of God. And with The 
Spirit of God I can breathe the life of God. And thus I may 
cope with every enemy — and be alert for every duty — and 
break through every obstacle ; till I reach at last the multitude 
of the redeemed, and join the chorus of the heavenly wor- 
shijypers of Christ as God, who cry with a loud voice, " Worthy 
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and 
wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing !" — 
" Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto him that 
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and 
ever ! " Rev. v. 12, 13. 



121 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 

In considering the Titles by which our Redeemer is de- 
signated in the Apostles' Creed, we have seen that his Office 
is indicated by the name " Jesus ; " his Dignity by that of 
" Christ ; " his Nature by that of " God's only Son." The 
only remaining title is that which marks out his Authority, 
as " Our Lord." 

This title, we say, expresses the Authority of the 'Redeemer 
over us as his people. It is not, you observe, " The Lord" that 
he is called, or still more simply " Lord," but it is, with 
special reference to the persons who recite the Creed, and 
their relation to the Saviour, " our Lord." 

He is, indeed, " The Lord ;" and he is saluted in the Scrip- 
ture as emphatically " Lord," in the highest sense of the ap- 
pellation, as denoting the Sovereign Possessor and Ruler of 
the universe — Him who is in the 0]d Testament called Je- 
hovah, — invested with the name, as he possesses the nature, 
and exercises the authority, of the eternal Father. In this 
sense Malachi prophesied of him, " The Lord shall come to 
his temple." Mai. iii. 1. In this sense the Psalmist, as 
quoted by the Apostle to the Hebrews,* addresses him, 
"Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of 

* Apparently from the Septuagint version, which has xxr u^x^s rh ynv tru 
Kvgii ikfji.i'kluffa.i, Ps. cii. 25. 

G 



122 THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 

the earth ; and the heavens are the works of thine hand : 
they shall perish ; but thou remainest ; and they all shall wax 
old as doth a garment ; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them 
up, and they shall be changed : but thou art the same and 
thy years shall not fail." Heb. i. 10 — 12. And in this sense 
St. Paul declares of him^ " The second man is The Lord from 
heaven." 1 Cor. xv. 47. 

Moreover, Jesus is, and is continually called, " The Lord," 
as being the Messiah; the anointed King, commissioned in 
God's name, and with his authority, to rule over, not his people 
only, but the world. As said St. Peter to the Jews, upon 
the day of Pentecost : " Let all the house of Israel know as- 
suredly, that God hath made that same Jesus which ye have 
crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts ii. 36. And as St. 
Paul declares to the Philippians, " Wherefore God also hath 
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above 
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the 
earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. ii. 9 — 11. 

But it is to that more limited sense, to which the relative 
term " our " directs us, that we have now to confine our at- 
tention; contemplating therein the Authority of Jesus in that 
special relation which he hears to us his followers. In this sense 
he calls himself, and is called by others, our " Lord," as 
being the only authoritative Teacher — Ruler — and Protector, 
of his people. 

Christ is '' our Lord/' then. First, as being the only autho- 
ritative Teacher of his people. 

So he declares himself to his disciples when he had risen up 
from supper, and washed their feet. His object at that mo- 
ment was to teach his apostles a great moral lesson of self-for- 



THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 123 

getting love, and this he did, not only by words, but (as so 
frequently was his custom) by a striking symbolical act. And 
then he calls upon them to imitate the disposition which by 
this act he had commended to them. " Ye call me Master 
and Lord/' i. e. your authoritative Teacher, as the Jewish pu- 
pils were wont to salute their rabbin, " and ye say well, for so 
I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your 
feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet ; for I have 
given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to 
you." John xiii. 13 — 15. 

When, therefore, we acknowledge Jesus as our Lord we do 
so as an authoritative Teacher, to whose words we are to 
listen^, whose example we are to follow, and by whose princi- 
ples and precepts we are to regulate our life. It was in this 
sense that he fulfilled the promise of God to Moses, " I will 
raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto 
thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak 
unto them all that I shall command him." Deut. xviii. 18. 
Where observe, as very essential to our right conception of 
Jesus as a teacher, that he is called a Prophet, not as merely 
instructing us in certain truths, as any other wise man might 
do, but as laying before us, emphatically, the truths of God, — 
in God's name — with God's authority — out of God's mouth. 
A prophet is, emphatically^ one who speaks for God, as the 
Messenger, the Interpreter, the Mouthpiece, of God.* And 

* For the term "Prophet" both in Greek and Hebrew, belongs to him 
who is an Interpreter of divine oracles. " Prophets," says Plato, " are the ex- 
pounders of the mysterious voices and manifestations of the gods." And 
hence the office of Aaron in relation to Moses, as the channel of his communi- 
cation to Pharaoh, is designated by this term. " See," says the Lord to 
Moses, " I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be 
thy proplief'' Exod. vii. 1. Which is further explained by ch.iv. 15, 16, " Thou 
shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth ; and he shall be thy spokes- 
man unto the people ; and he shall be to thee instead of a mouth.'''' And so 
God says to his prophet Jeremiah ; oh. xv. 19, " Thou shalt be as my mouth.''' 

g2 



124 THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 

therefore there is included in this idea not teaching only, but 
authoritative teaching : — teaching as by a master to his pupils, 
a Father to his children, a Lawgiver to his subjects, still more, 
a Seer to those who consult the oracle of his God. Whence 
it is said immediately after, " It shall come to pass that whoso- 
ever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in 
my name, I will require it of him." O how awful a relation 
is it to be the pupil, and scholar, and disciple of Christ I To 
come up to him as to a divine oracle to receive from his lips 
the responses of the Most High I For while " he that is of 
the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth, he that cometh 
from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard, 
that he testifieth. And he that hath received his testimony 
hath set to his seal that God is true I For he whom God 
sent speaketh the words of God : for God giveth not the Spirit 
by measure unto him ! " John iii. 31 — 34. " See that ye re- 
fuse not him that speaketh ; for if they escaped not who re- 
fused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape 
if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven ! " Heb. 
xii. 25. 

But Jesus is not only, as " our Lord," our Teacher — our 
authoritative Teacher ; but he is moreover our only authorita- 
tive Teacher. " No man hath seen God at any time ; the 
only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he 
only hath declared him" — made his will and character entirely 

And the express description of " The Prophet " himself, indicates the divine 
authority with which he should teach as the Spokesman of the Lord : " I will 
raise them up a Prophet — and will put my tvords in his mouth ; and he shall 
speak unto them all that I shall command him.'''' Deut. xviii. 18. Whence 
Jesus declares so frequently ; " He that sent me is true ; and I speak to the 
world those things which I have heard of Him.'''' '•^ As my Father hath taught 
me I speak these things." John viii. 26, 28. " I have not spoken of myself ; 
but he Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment what I should say, 
and what I should speak. — Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father 
said unto me, so I speak.'''' John xii. 49, 50. 



THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 125 

clear. John i. 18. As he alone speaks forth, in all their pu- 
rity and fulness, the words of God ; so to him alone must be 
referred, and with his principles must be compared, all the 
teaching of other men. He does indeed teach his people me- 
diately, by the instrumentality of others, as well as immedi- 
ately, by himself. Even in the days of his flesh he chose out 
and commissioned messengers who should go in his name 
through the cities of Judea and proclaim the message that he 
put into their mouth. And to his Apostles he opened out his 
mind, with this express intent, that what he told them in dark- 
ness they should speak in light, and what they heard in the 
ear they should preach upon the housetops. And when he 
left the earth he still more extensively confided the teaching of 
his people to human agents, authorized and qualified by him- 
self, to speak in his name, and build men up in his truth. 
" When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and 
gave gifts unto men ; and he gave some, apostles ; and some, 
prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and 
teachers, for the perfecting of the saints^ for the work of the 
ministry, for the edifying" or building up into its full propor- 
tions, '' of the body of Christ." Eph. iv. 8, 1 1, 12. The office 
of the ministry was constituted by our Lord himself for the 
communication, illustration, application, and enforcement of 
his truth ; and therefore the Apostle says, " As we were 
allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we 
speak." 1 Thess. ii. 4. And Jesus tells his seventy disciples, 
whom he sent forth to teach in his name, " He that heareth 
you heareth me ; and he that despiseth you despiseth me ; and 
he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me." Luke x. 16. 
O awful commission ! O solemn responsibility I " We are am- 
bassadors for Christ I As though God did beseech you by us, 
we pray you in Christ" s stead, be ye reconciled to God!" 
2 Cor. V. 20. 



126 THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 

But then — -what says our Lord concerning even those mes- 
sengers whom he has himself appointed? How jealously does 
he still reserve to himself the supreme authority ! How ear- 
nestly does he forbid his people to look to his agents, irrespec- 
tive of himself; to give to the persons sent, that unlimited 
deference, honour, and obedience, which belongs only to the 
Sender I " Be not ye called Rabbi," i. e. Teacher, authorita- 
tive Teacher, " for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye 
are brethren. And call no man your Father" — your absolute 
spiritual guide * — "upon the earth; for one is your Father, 
which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters ;" — leaders 
— "for one is your Master, even Christ." Matt, xxiii. 8 — 10. 
And see then how the voice of man must sink to nothing, in 
our estimation, when brought into competition with the voice of 
Christ. The voice of man, I say, or any body of men ; which 
though it came pouring down upon us like the sound of many 
waters, and though its hollow roar were echoed to us at every 
moment, from every side, through every age, must, with the 

* This was one of the many titles of aiithoritj'- assumed by the Rabbin, in 
relation to their pupils. As a term of respect and affection it may be borne 
with. Joash went do^vn to Elisha, " and wept over him and said, my 
father ! my father ! " 2 Kings xiii. 14. And St. Paul reminds the Cbrin- 
thians, " Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not 
many fathers ; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." 
1 Cor. iv. 15. But in the sense of authority as the head of a School, to whose 
words his pupils should blindly swear, this same Apostle — though an Apostle ! 
— expressly disclaims any such relation to these same Corinthians. " Not for 
that we have dommion over your faith, but are Mlpers of your joy : for by 
faith,'''' your o^^^l personal conviction, and that alone, (of. Rom. xiv. 23, 5), 
" ye stand." 2 Cor. i. 24. For " who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but minis- 
ters by whom ye believed," the directors of your confidence towards a super- 
human and invisible Teacher, " even as the Lord gave to every man." 1 Cor. 
iii. 5. And yet the Romanist calls one man, — not from reverence simply, but 
with abject prostration as before supreme authority, yea infallibility, — one 
man, above all others on the earth, not only a Father, but the " Father," the 
"Papa," r7ie"Pope!" 



THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 127 

Christian, have no force, — must by the Christian be indig- 
nantly — say rather, with the placid smile of calm conviction, 
quietly though steadily — repelled as but the clamouring down 
of his spiritual freedom ; except so far as from the evidence 
of the primitive documents of the sacred record he has good 
reason to believe it harmonizing with the voice of Christ. 
Remember, Reader, that voice of Christ you now possess. 
You have preserved to you the permanent manifestation of 
his mind and will, in the authentic records of those who heard 
its precious sound, as they are laid up in the sacred Canon of 
the New Testament. Those records are to the Christian 
church what the tables of the Law, in the ark of the Testi- 
mony, were to the Jews. Those records you are to make use 
of for yourself as that law was to be made use of by the Jews : 
" These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy 
heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children, 
and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and 
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, 
and when thou risest up; and thou shalt bind them for a sign 
upon thine hand, and they shall be to thee as frontlets be- 
tween thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of 
thine house, and upon thy gates." Deut. vi. 6 — 9. You have 
got these words of Jesus, I remind you, through God's provi- 
dence, in your hands. Take care that you keep them. Hold 
them fast. Let no man " spoil you of them through philoso- 
phy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the 
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ," Col. ii. 8. 
You can read them. Take care that you do read them. 
Study them — make yourself familiar with them— enter into 
them— treat them, now they are written down on paper, just 
as you would have treated them had you been among the 
crowds of the unlearned who " heard them gladly" when they 
first fell from his lips, and " wondered at the gracious words 



128 THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 

which proceeded out of his mouth." Would those words have 
been unintelligible to you, hearing them ? Neither need they 
be unintelligible to you, reading them. Were Christ's spoken 
words sent forth in all their nakedness into the ears of the 
surrounding multitude, to be received by them according to 
their wants ; their consciences ; their common sense ; their 
personal reflection, unfolding and applying them to their 
hearts ; and do Christ's words written require for their saving 
apprehension anything more? Would you have thought it 
strange if, when you were eagerly pressing on that divine 
Teacher to catch his words, some Pharisees around you had 
suggested, Do not suppose you can discover his meaning 
by what he says — he is far too deep for that ; we know more 
about these things, and we can best explain them to you ; hear 
him through our ears ; judge of him through our judgments ? 
— And that, too, when you had just been hearing The Teacher 
himself declare, " If any man have ears to hear let him hear ! " 
— Then, I say, \)a.e privilege^ yea the solemn duty, which, as a 
Jiearer^ Christ himself would have called you to, do you, as a 
reader^ jealously hold fast. You have to do with God and 
not with man. You are accountable to him who is your Lordy 
and not to those who are only your brethren. By Chrisfs 
word on your personal responsibility, at the last great day, 
you will be judged; (John xii. 48) therefore of Christ's word, 
as it has been preserved to you in authentic documents, must 
you form your personal judgment, by which judgment to judge 
yourself, by anticipation, now. 

Do I deny by this the need of caution, enquiry, deliberation, 
readiness to seize every help that may assist your own conclu- 
sion ? Do I mean that like an idle bystander, or a heedless 
passenger who has come in for just the conclusion of a sen- 
tence, you are self-sufficiently to exclaim, " I know all that he 
meant to say I " without pausing on his w^ords ; without waiting 



THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 129 

for their full developement ; without comparing notes with 
others who have heard him from a more favourable situation ; 
or for a longer time ; or on other occasions ? Nay but I grant, 
upon the contrary, — I contend, — that every one who is in 
earnest to be saved will hang with trembling interest on the 
lips of Him who " has the words of eternal life \' will try 
again and again to profit by every opportunity of getting at 
his meaning in all its depth and fulness ; will listen to every 
suggestion, will be thankful for every hint, will like the Ethi- 
opian eunuch respectfully make every enquiry, by which he 
may be assisted to understand the words of Christ. But still, 
it will be the words of Christ, and these alone, to which he 
looks ; whose authority he recognizes ; before which with im- 
plicit faith he bows ; and by whose solemn law his conscience 
will be bound. And therefore amidst all our needful self- 
mistrust ; our docility ; our readiness to consult and be assisted 
by, those who are standing nearer, as it were, to Christ than 
ourselves ; (and all this becomes our duty just in proportion 
to the deficiency of our own opportunities and powers ;) still, 
the truth for each man, at the last, must be that which he him- 
self perceives, from all these helps, to be the word of Christ ; 
and the authority to which alone he must submit his mind, his 
heart, his will, his life, must be the auihority of Christ. For 
O the awful importance of looking up simply to " Our Lord ! " 
of feeling that we are accountable for all we think, as well as 
do — for the judgments of our mind as well as the disposition 
of our will — before that Lord! "It is a very small thing" 
said St. Paul, "that I should be judged of man's judgment, — 
for he that judgeth me is The Lord ! " 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4. And 
what, then, are men to us, compared with Christ ? What the 
best and wisest, set by the side of Christ ? What the whole 
Christian world when brought into competition with Christ ? 
Was any one of them crucified for you? or were you baptized into 

g5 



130 THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 

their name ? Is any man, or any body of men, to give the law 
to our moral judgment, as our Master ? or may we call them, 
with an absolute surrender of our conscience. Lord? Nay, 
says the fervid Apostle, " If any man preach any other gospel 
unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. 
For do I now persuade men, or God ? or do I seek to please 
men ? For if I yet pleased men, I should not he the servant of 
Christ:' Gal. i. 9, 10. 

And this matter becomes still more serious when we go on 
to consider, in the second place, that in confessing Jesus as 
" our Lord " we acknowledge him also as our only authoritative 
Ruler, 

For he reserves to himself the ultimate authority in govern- 
ing, as well as teaching, his people. As we may not receive 
as truths what we are persuaded he has not taught ; so neither 
may we perform as dut^, what we are persuaded he has not 
commanded. He has appointed, indeed, several ranks and 
orders of men in his holy church, " Apostles, prophets, helps, 
governments;" and such spiritual rulers, in administering 
Christ's laws, are clothed with the authority, and should meet 
with the deference, which belongs to the civil Ruler in admi- 
nistering the acknowledged law of the land. " Obey them 
that have the rule over you," says St. Paul to the Hebrews, 
"and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they 
that must give account ; that they may do it with joy and not 
with grief: for that would be unprofitable for you." Heb. xiii. 
1 7. " We beseech you brethren," he writes to the Thessalo- 
nians, " to know them which labour among you, and are over 
you in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them very 
highly in love for their work's sake." 1 Thess. v. 12, 13. 
But then — this same Apostle prescribes in another place con- 
cerning all things that are not expressly ruled and determined 



THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 131 

by Christ's statutes, " Let every man he fully persuaded in his 
own mind" " Who art thou that judgest another mans ser- 
vant f To his own Master" (or Lord) " he standeth or falleth ; 
yea, God is able to make him stand." "He that regardeth 
the day regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not 
the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, 
eateth to the Lord, and giveth God thanks; and he that eateth 
not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For 
none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether we 
die, we die unto the Lo7'd ; whether we live therefore or die, 
we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and 
rose^ and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and 
living." Rom. xiv. 1—9. 

And O consider, then, what we are speaking of now, as 
being professed by us when in our Creed we acknowledge 
Christ as " our Lord." Not of opinions, but of practical 
doings — not of doctrine but of works — not of what we are to 
believe merely, but of what, in consequence of such belief, we 
are to do; — to do, in all the branches and details of moral 
duty ; — the regulation of our dispositions — the ordering of our 
conduct — the formation of our character, as the offering of a 
ready obedience to our Sovereign Ruler. You say repeatedly 
in your Creed, " I believe in Jesus Christ our Lord." Is 
there anything which that Lord forbids, that you are indulging 
in ? Is there anything which that Lord commands, that you 
are making light of — overlooking — shrinking from ? O take 
care that there come not to you from your heavenly Master 
that expostulation, " Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not 
the things which I say ! " Yea, that authoritative declaration, 
" Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my 
Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me, in that day, 



132 THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 

Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name," (L e. as thy 
professed disciples,) " and in thy name cast out devils, and in 
thy name done many wonderful works ? And then will I pro- 
fess unto them, I never knew you ; depart from me all ye 
workers of iniquity I" Matt. vii. 21 — 23, The ten virgins 
were all servants of the bridegroom; they all acknowledged 
his authority ; they were all waiting for his appearing ; they 
all hoped to partake of his marriage supper ; but when five of 
them — who had not been, I pray you to observe, rebels to his 
rule, had not cast off his service, had not denied his name, and 
could have said, as we do, " I believe in Jesus Christ our 
Lord/' but who were simply negligent of their duty to this Lord, 
— when these five foolish virgins started up at last, and ran to 
the palace door, and knocked, and cried out " Lo7'd, Lord, 
open to us ;" " he answered and said. Verily I say unto you, 
I know you not!" Matt. xxv. 1 — 12. O may that mighty 
Ruler, whose you are and whom you serve, forbid that it be 
so with you I Now, may you do his will — now, may you be 
alive to your duties towards him — now, may you serve him, 
in all the relations of your daily life, " in singleness of your 
heart, as unto Christ ; not with eye-service as a men-pleaser, 
but as the servant of Christ, doing the will of God from the 
heart, with good-will doing service as to the Lord, and not to 
men ;" " knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth 
the same shall he receive of the Lord ; for we serve the Lord, 
Christ !" Eph. vi. 5 — 8. Col. iii. 24. 

And do you feel the difficulty of doing this ? Are you but 
too conscious of your sinfulness, your weakness, your insuffi- 
ciency, so that even when you take Christ as your Teacher, 
and strive to serve him as your Ruler, you are disappointed, 
" let and hindered," every day ? Then look on Jesus, in the 



THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 133 

third place, as " your Lord" as being also the authoritative 
Protector of his people. 

For how is that term " Lord" employed by Paul, in its 
relation to Christ's people ? In a sense O how endearing I 
how encouraging I " Husbands" he says to the Ephesians, 
" love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and 
gave himself for it ; — ^for no man ever yet hated his own flesh 
but loveth it and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church^ 
Eph. V. 25—29. Is there Authority in Jesus over us ? 
Absolute authority I But an authority how tempered, soften- 
ed, made to tell upon the heart, as well as on the will — yea on 
the will through the heart — seeing that it is the authority not 
merely as of a Teacher over his disciples — as of a Master over 
his servants — but as of a husband over his wife : seeing that 
we confess him, and surrender ourselves to him as our Lord, 
with all the affection as well as the reverence, the freedom as 
well as the submissiveness, with which " the holy women in 
old time, who trusted in God, were in subjection to their own 
husbands ; even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord !" 
1 Peter iii. 5, 6. The church is not the servant merely, she 
is the bride, of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 
" Hearken O daughter and consider, and incline thine ear; 
forget also thine own people, and thy father's house ; so shall 
the King greatly desire thy beauty ; for he is thy Lord, and 
worship thou him." Ps. xlv. 10, 11. 

Dear reader — let me beseech you, take this particular of 
the character of your Redeemer to your heart : meditate on it 
for yourself; give it its full force; let it speak to your best 
affections ; feel what he is to you, as 2/our Lord in this most 
animating sense ; — how he has put on you his own most glori- 
ous name, and presents you to the Father as sacred and well- 
pleasing to Him_, in himself; — how he endows you with the 



134 THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST. 

ample dowry of his grace ; — how he has made over to you the 
inheritance of his never-fading glory ; — how he leans over you 
with the tenderest affection ; — how he watches you with the 
most assiduous care ; — how he puts forth, to defend you, his 
mighty arm ; — how he makes your sorrows and your joys his 
own ; condescends to your infirmities ; feels for your wants ; 
is jealous for your honour ; will adorn you with the jewels of 
his holiness. Is there any feeling which you cannot open out 
to Christ as thus your Lord? Is there any blessing which 
you cannot expect from Christ as thus your Lord ? Is there 
any extent of confidence which you cannot repose in Christ, 
as thus your Lord ? " For thy Maker is thine husband, the 
Lord of Hosts is his name !" 



135 



CHAPTER V. 

THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 

We have gone now through the Titles of our blessed Lord, 
as they are recited in the Apostles' Creed. The next subject 
which it presents to us is the mysterious fact of his Incarna- 
tion : — " Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born 
OF the Virgin Mary." 

Now in this subject there are two things to be noticed ; 
First, the Fact itself which the Creed commemorates ; Secondly, 
the Reasons which the Scriptures intimate for this Fact. 

Looking, First, to the fact itself here commemorated, 
we must take care to remind ourselves of whom the Creed is 
speaking — what is the antecedent to this relative clause — 
when it declares " who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, 
born of the Virgin Mary." The person to whom it refers by 
the pronoun " who" is no less than that exalted being, one of 
whose titles is " God's only Son." And the fact therefore of 
his conception and birth into this world can be expressed in no 
terms less than these — He who is perfect God became, hy the 
Incarnation, perfect man. The mode indeed of such a descent 
of the Godhead into the form of manhood it were vain to en- 
quire, because impossible to know, but the Fact is so asserted in 
Scripture, as to constitute an essential part of the Christian 
faith. Thus, St. Paul declares to the Galatians, iv. 4, " When 
the fulness of the time was come," when all things were ripe 



136 THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 

for the manifestation of that saving help, which the Father had 
long intended and promised for this fallen world, then, " God 
sent forth," dispatched from the heavenly regions where he 
dwelt in the bosom of the Eternal, " his Son." And this 
" Son" so sent forth on this errand of mercy " was made" 
(continues the Apostle), " of a woman ;" was born into this 
world a human child. So also writes St. John ; who after 
he had spoken of " The Word of God, who was in the be- 
ginning, and was with God, and was God," goes on to assert 
that " this Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John 
i. 1 4. And St. Paul again ; Phil. ii. 6, 7, when he declares 
that He who was " in the form of God" and " equal with 
God," " took upon him the form of a servant," i. e. one sub- 
ordinate to God, an agent in his work ; " and was made in the 
likeness of men." The same being who from one point of 
view is beheld as " God ; of the substance of the Father, be- 
gotten before the worlds," is, in these passages expressly, and 
throughout the Scripture by implication, set before us in an- 
other point of view as " Man, of the substance of his mother, 
born in the world." 

But the words of our Creed assert, yet further, that this 
descent of the Divine into the human took place exactly 
according to the inspired predictions, both as to time, and place, 
and circumstance, of the word of God. It was not enough 
that the Son of God should become the Son of man, but he 
must do so "under the law" — as a Jew — as that particular 
Jew who had so long been promised and looked out for, for 
the saving of the world — The Christ : under the circum- 
stances, therefore, and according to the manner which had 
been foretold concerning The Christ. And these are the 
circumstances, and this the manner, which are commemorated 
by those clauses of our Creed> " conceived by the Holy Ghost, 
born of the Virgin Mary." 



THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 137 

For the prophets had foretold concerning The Christ that 
he should be born of the family, and in the very birth-place, 
of the royal David ; the king whom God had anointed over 
Israel, as a type of the future Messiah. Jeremiah had pro- 
phesied, " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will 
raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign 
and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the 
earth — and this is his name whereby he shall be called The 
Lord our Righteousness." Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. And Micah 
had foretold, still more minutely concerning the birth-place of 
David, " Thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little 
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come 
forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth 
have been of old, from everlasting." Micah v. 2. And ac- 
cordingly when the fulness of time for the accomplishment of 
these prophecies was come, " the angel Gabriel was sent from 
God to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, 
of the house of David,'' and announced to her, " Thou shalt 
bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus, — and the 
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father Davids 
Luke i. 26 — 32. And though Joseph and Mary were at that 
time living at Nazareth, a town of Galilee, yet by a divinely 
ordered concurrence of circumstances they " went up from 
Galilee into Judea, into the city of David which is called Beth- 
lehem, because Joseph was of the house and lineage of David : 
and so it was that while they were there the days were accom- 
plished that Mary should be delivered ; and she brought forth 
her first-born son." Luke ii. 4 — 7. And thus " Jesus was 
born in Bethlehem of Judea, as it is written by the prophet !" 
Matt. ii. 1—5. 

But more than this. It was foretold by those same inspired 
men that The Christ should be born, though of the race of 
David as to legal descent, yet, nevertheless of a Virgin Mother. 



138 THE INCAKNATION OF CHRIST. 

This was the sign which had been given by the Lord to Ahaz 
through Isaiah, " Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a 
son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah vii. 14. And 
accordingly, St. Matthew tells us that " the birth of Jesus 
Christ was on this wise ; when as his mother Mary was espoused 
to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child 
of the Holy Ghost." Matt. i. 1 8. Where you see the Incar- 
nation of the Redeemer characterized by the direct exertion of 
divine energy : — that same energy which created the first man, 
and which therefore could, at any time, equally " create a new 
thing in the earth." " The Holy Ghost shall come upon 
thee," said the angel to the Virgin, '*" and the power of the 
Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore that holy thing 
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." 
Luke i. 35, 

Such then are the simple Facts declared in Scripture con- 
cerning the Incarnation of Christ. Facts which must stand, 
amidst all their inconceivableness, as true and certain, till Scrip- 
ture itself be overturned, and all the piled up mass of cumu- 
lative evidence for its authority have been crumbled down and 
scattered to the winds. These Facts are, first, that God was 
manifest in the flesh ; and secondly, that in so manifesting 
himself he took on him the person of the promised Christ 
with all those marks by which he had before been designated 
and distinguished, by the prophets of old. These Facts are 
commemorated in the Creed, not as the product of theological 
speculation, but as matters of history/. And as matters of his- 
tory they are authenticated to us " by most certain warrants of 
holy Scripture." And as so authenticated let us receive them, 
even as Mary submitted to an angel's afiirmation ; and let us 
welcome them with her adoring praise ; " My soul doth mag- 
nify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, 
for he hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his 



THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 



139 



mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed 
for ever I " * 

But the Bible does not stop at the simple declaration of 
the fact of the Incarnation of Christ ; it furnishes in many 
places, important intimations of the reasons why in this way 
and no other God vouchsafed to visit and redeem this fallen 
world. 

For you will find, upon investigation, that the Bible repre- 
sents the Incarnation of Christ as vouchsafed, first, in order to 
the re-union of the Father with his outcast children. The Idea 
of the Incarnation — that transcendental truth of which the 
sensible fact is at once the symbol, and the realization — is the 
Idea of God re-united to man. That which reason had long 
felt the need of, that which the very instinct of human na- 
ture had attempted in various ways to obtain for itself, is 
actualized — made a fact, — in the Incarnation of God's own 
Son. The most painful feeling mixed up with our fallen con- 
dition is that of separation^ thereby, from God. We cannot 
begin to think of him without a dim and painful conscious- 
ness at the same time, that we are far off from him — that 
there exists a great gulph between the Divine and the 
human, and especially between the Holy and the sinful — that 
we are so distant from his nature and perfections that it is 
more from the impulse of a pressing necessity, than with the 
energy of hope, that we " seek the Lord, if peradventure," 
by some not to be expected chance, " we may " like blind men 
groping in the dark, ^^ feel after him\ that we may find him." 

* Hoc est Christum cognoscere, henefida ejus cognoscere ; non quod isti 
(scholastici) docent, ejus naturas, modos incarnationis, contueri. — Melanc- 
THON, Loci Theol. i. ed. 

f ■4'vi>.a,(pyiffiicx.v' Acts xvii. 17. The word used by the Seventy, in 
Deut. xxviii. 29, " Thou shalt grope at noon-day as tlie blind gropetli in 
darkness." And Isa. lix. 10, " We grope for the wall like the blind." 



140 THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 

His power and wisdom, nay and something of his goodness, 
as spread over the vast fabric of the universe, we seem 
obliged to acknowledge ; but any connection of Him with our- 
selves, in personal relation, we cannot realize. Our very 
effort to distinguish him from the world on which he acts, 
removes yet farther from us the idea of communion with him. 
With distinction we fall into division. Besides, the idea of 
the Holy One seems incompatible with the idea of sinful ones 
like ourselves. In our worse states of mind we cannot hear 
to bring the two conceptions into juxtaposition ; in our better 
states we cannot venture to do so. And hence the feeling of 
the ungodly, in every generation, has always been, " Is not 
God in the height of heaven ? And behold the height of the 
stars how high they are ! How doth God know ? Can he 
judge through the dark cloud?" And "is there knowledge in 
the Most High ?" While the feeling, on the other hand, 
of those whose souls, even in the night of Paganism, were 
yearning towards the Being in whom they felt they lived and 
moved, was that of doubt and apprehension, lest the very 
majesty and purity of the Unseen must necessarily prevent 
His condescending to the meanness and corruption of humanity. 
" I do not throw away all thought of the Deity " said one, 
" but so much do I reverence him, and count him of such sur- 
passing dignity, that I can never persuade myself that he can 
need my service ; for be well assured that could I but believe 
that God bestows a thought on man I should be the last to be 
careless of his favour." ^ There is a native longing, in the 
midst of an acquired dread, in the human mind to have com- 
munication with God. 

And hence the craving for such communication which stirs 
in every one that begins to know himself, and his relation to 

* Xenoph. Mem. Socr. i. iv. 4. 



THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 141 

an invisible world. The wish of intercourse with Deity has 
been the fruitful parent of the thought. The poetic legends 
of the old Mythology are but the embodiment of the Idea of 
a relation, an intercommunion, between heaven and earth. 
The gods descending to earth, the heroes being raised to 
heaven — appearances — alliances — sojournings of the immortals 
in a mortal form — all tell us what men longed for, and what 
they therefore believed. So again, the craving for enlighten- 
ment from on high was as strong as that for personal 
communication and help. Hence the whole system of di- 
vination — the pretensions (to be traced, perhaps, as much 
to enthusiasm as imposture) to inspiration and oracular 
influence ; the belief that poets, lawgivers, and states- 
men were not without their secret interviews with Deity in 
the awful forest or the myrtle grove. And even the phi- 
losophers, while they smiled at the mythology of their 
country as fabulous, yet were not the less possessed with the 
Idea whence that mythology sprang, and yearned and strove 
within themselves to realize by mental elevation the vision of 
Deity, the sense of union with, of emanation from, the all-ori- 
ginating Spirit. The self-deification of the Stoics ;* the con- 
templation of the Platonists of Alexandria ; the physical 
ecstacy sought after by the Bonzes of India ; the dream of 
re-absorption into the divine essence indulged by the Buddhists 
of Burmah ; all are but testimonies, from quarters the most 
distant and most diverse, of this one desire of outcast human 
nature, " O to know God, find God, be re-united to God I" 
Earth, by the fall has been separated off from heaven. Man 
has been banished from Paradise^, the garden of the Lord's 
especial presence. He feels that he is dependent on a higher be- 
ing, and yet that from that higher being he is cut off. He has 

. * iKOLtrrou vovs hos, xxt iKithv ippunKiv. — Antoninus. 



142 THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 

a Father, yet he is an orphan. He lives hy God, and yet he 
lives not with God. And therefore, with aspirations con- 
tinually beaten downward, and endeavours continually baffled, 
he seeks Re-union with the Source from whence he sprang — 
he complains with Job, " Behold I go forward, but he is not 
there ; and backward, but I cannot perceive him ; on the left 
hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him ; he 
hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him I " — he 
exclaims, with that same patriarch, " Oh, that I knew where I 
might find him ! that I might come even to his seat !" — and 
he cries with the Apostle Philip, " Lord, show us the Father, 
and it sufficeth us !" 

To which instinctive craving of our nature, the Father has 
condescended in the Incarnation of his Son, The grand Idea 
of the Incarnation, and of the Person of Christ as the God- 
man, is that of Deity united with humanity. It so knits 
together the Divine and the human as to do away all feeling 
of strangeness, alienation, between heaven and earth — and to 
associate the conceptions, seemingly so incompatible, of the 
Infinite and the finite ; the Eternal and the temporal ; the 
Almighty and the feeble. The Incarnation of Christ is God 
coming down to manifest himself to man — to embody himself 
in man — to enter into vital union and communion with the 
'•reasonable soul " of man. "Show us the Father," said the 
anxious Philip. " Have I been so long time with you," 
answers the divine Redeemer, " and hast thou not known 
me, Philip ? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; and 
how sayest thou then. Shew us the Father ? Believest thou 
not that / am in the Father and the Father in me ? The 
words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the 
Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." John xiv. 
9—11. 

But, secondly, the Incarnation of the Son of God in the per- 



THE INCARNATIOI^ OF CHRIST. 143 

son of Jesus Christ is represented in Scripture, as vouchsafed, 
in order to the Restoration to the Father, of his outcast children. 
" God sent forth his Son," says St. Paul to the Galatians, iv. 4, 
" made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that 
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" 
And this is that reason for the Incarnation which the same 
Apostle argues out at length in the second chapter of his 
Epistle to the Hebrews ; where he shows, — in opposition to 
the prejudices of the Jews, who looked contemptuously on a 
human, and especially a dying, Christ ; and would rather have 
had the Lord of angels come to their rescue in the splendour 
of his divine majesty — that Jesus was indeed made for a little 
time lower than the angels, but this only because it was essen- 
tial to the end for which he came. For that end was not the 
rescue only, of his people, but their rescue by his own death in 
their stead ; not the restoration, simply, of God's fallen 
children, but their restoration by his personal intercourse with 
them, to teach, encourage, give them an example that they 
should walk in his steps. " We see Jesus " says the Apostle 
" made a little lower * than the angels for the suffering of 
death, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for 
evei-y man. For it became him " (there was a moral propriety 
and necessity) " for whom are all things and by whom are 
all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the 
Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings ; for 
both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all 
of one ; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them 
brethren. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of 
flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of ike 

* Or rather, (according to the margin of our bibles ; Chrysostom, and 
Augustin) " a Utth while inferior to." B^a;^^y r/, Acts v. 34 : " He com- 
manded to put the Apostles forth a little space " (of time). Not even to 
angels was the Messiah inferior, except for a short moment — in order to a 
specific object. 



144 THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 

same^ that through death he might destroy him that had 
the power of death, that is, the devil ; and deliver them who 
through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bond- 
age. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels " 
(or rather, he came not for the redemption of angels,) " but he 
took on him the nature," (he came for the redemption of) 
" the seed of Abraham ; wherefore in all things it behoved 
him " (there was a moral necessity arising from the nature of 
the work that he had undertaken) " to be made like unto his 
brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in 
things pertaining to God; to r)iake reconciliation /or the sins of 
the people." O what grace and love are here ! That the Son 
of God should reduce himself to the condition of suffering 
humanity for the redemption of that humanity/ from the wretch- 
edness in which it lay ! *' For us men, andyor our salvation" 
emphatically adds the Nicene Creed, "he came down from 
heaven." For this salvation is no such mechanical process 
that, like the inanimate creation, it may be spoken into being 
by God's mere voice of might. Salvation is a spiritual effect 
which can be wrought out only by spiritual means. It is a 
moral creation which requires a moral process. And therefore, 
not the Son of God himself could effect it but by becoming 
the Son of man, to carry on that process, and supply these 
means. Salvation is no magical metamorphosis, but a mental 
transformation. And to produce this mental transformation 
Christ was born into the world, and taught, and suffered, 
and bled, and died. Men were ignorant and needed instruc- 
tion. Christ came as man to teach them and unveil to them 
the whole truth concerning God, and his relation to them, and 
his purposes for them. For none could do this, in its fulness, 
but the incarnate Son. Not Moses, with all his visions of the 
Almighty ; for the skirts only of his glory did he see. Not 
the Prophets, with all their inspiration, for on them the Spirit 



THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. ' 143 

was poured only by measure — in occasional and limited in- 
fluxes. But only He who is in the bosom of the Father could 
dedarSi or make him clearly known. " No man hath ascended 
up to heaven but he that came down from heaven ; even the 
Son of man which is in heaven." John iii. 13. " He whom 
God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not 
the Spirit hy measure unto him.'' John iii. 34. " No man 
knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the 
Son will reveal him." Matt. xi. 27. 

But more than this. Men are worse than ignorant : they 
are corrupt and guilty in the sight of God. They need, not 
simply instruction in the knowledge of God ; they need even 
more imperatively reconciliation to the favour of God. And 
for this Christ came in the flesh. To manifest to us embodied 
compassion — to show by his gracious invitations ; his pitying 
condescensions ; his healing, and restoring, and life-giving in- 
terpositions ; his exercise of the power of forgiving sins on 
earth ; that God's essential character is Love. Yea infinitely 
more than this : — To remove the obstacles that impede the 
outpouring of that love — to harmonize its exercise with the 
demands of righteous equity — to make a way for pardon of 
the guilty by suffering in his person all the penalties of their 
guilt — to die for us, the just for the unjust, that he might 
bring us to God — for this Christ came in the flesh. " Herein, 
indeed^ is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved 
us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 
1 John iv. 10. 

But, one more reason is supplied to us in Scripture for the 
Incarnation of the Son of God. It was vouchsafed for the 
sustaining in the Father, his no longer outcast children. Christ's 
union with humanity unites humanity with God. And that 
union once commenced in the individual soul, through faith 



146 THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 

in the reconciling and restoring work of the God-man, is main- 
tained and kept up, day by day, by looking up to him as our 
Representative — our elder brother— -who has run for us the 
course which we must tread; has gone, as man, through all 
the vicissitudes which we can meet with; and now reigns, as 
man, in that triumphant bliss to which the Father has exalted 
him ; and with him all who are his brethren. In Christ we 
have the sympathies of Deity brought down to our level. 
He took our nature, with its manifold experiences, that we 
might find in him, not a Redeemer simply, but a Friend^ to un- 
derstand us ; go along with us ; feel with us ; help us. " In 
all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren," 
says St. Paul, "/or in that he himself hath suffered, being tempt- 
ed, he is able to succour them that are tempted.'" Heb. ii. 18. 
And again ; " We have not an high priest who cannot be 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all 
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us there- 
fore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain 
mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need." Heb. iv. 
16. O what a blessed thought is this I That in every trial, 
external or internal — of mind, or body, or estate, — we have in 
the Eternal Son of God a sympathising friend ! One who be- 
came man like ourselves, for this very end, that being human, 
he might be humane towards man I One who, we are sure, 
will show us kindness^ for he is of the same kind or kin ! One 
from whom we may expect the tenderest brotherly love; for " he 
is not ashamed to call us brethren ! " Nay, One who was so 
" made in all things like unto his brethren " that there is no form 
of trial we can be exposed to which he has not gone through 
for us ; and under which, therefore, we may not be sustained 
by the encouraging thought. My Lord has suffered this for 
me ; and can enable me to suffer it with him I Are you in 
poverty ? I'lic Son of God was poor, and had not where to 



THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 147 

lay his head. Are you depressed with sickness and infirmity 
and mortality ? The Son of God, too, being weary, craved 
for drink — being hungry, sought for food — being faint, ex- 
claimed, " I thirst !" — being in agony, did sweat as it were 
great drops of blood — being exhausted, bowed his head and 
gave up the ghost ! Or do the tears of desolation bedew your 
cheeks ? — are you bereaved of those you love ? The Son of 
God, too, knew what such bereavement is ; at the grave of 
Lazarus " Jesus wept I " Or does your trial come from an 
ungodly world ? Are you exposed to the scoifs of vulgar ani- 
mosity, or to the not less painful coldness of more polished 
enmity ? The Son of God, remember, " was reviled, but he 
reviled not again : he suffered, yet he threatened not, but com- 
mitted himself to him that judgeth righteously ! " Nay, and 
are you agitated by the anxieties of temptation, the assaults of 
the Evil One, the difficulty of sustaining your communion with 
your heavenly Father ? The Son of God, too, was '' tempted 
of the devil." The Son of God " prayed, being in an agony." 
The Son of God exclaimed upon the cross, " My God, My 
God, why hast thou forsaken me ! " The Son of God " was 
in all points tempted like as you are ; " but he foiled the 
Tempter, he remained untouched by sin ! 

And O then to remember, finally, that as Christ became 
incarnate to bring himself into communion with our human in- 
firmities ; so we, upon the other head, must become regenerate, 
to be brought into communion with his divine purity ! That 
conception of Jesus by the Holy Ghost, is not merely a mys- 
terious fact ; it is also a significant symbol. As, in Christ 
Jesus, God was manifest in the flesh, so, through faith in 
Christ Jesus, must the Spirit of God take up his dwelling in 
our hearts. " The Word was made flesh " says St. John, 
" and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth ; and of his fuU 
ness have all we received, and grace for grace." John i. 14, 16. 

H 2 



148 THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 

For, " as many as received him, to them gave he power to be- 
come the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name ; 
which were born/' (begotten) " not of blood nor of the will of 
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" John i. 12. 
" By that same grace," says St. Augustin, " through which 
Christ was made man, are we, on our believing, made Chris- 
tian men." " That," says St. Jerome, " which once was born 
of Mary, is daily born in us."* " I believe " says Bp, Beve- 
ridge, " that Christ, the Son of God, became the Son of man, 
that I, a son of man might become a son of God ... I believe 
that in the same propriety of speech that my earthly father 
was called the father of my natural self, is God the Father of 
my spiritual self." " We are commanded to be holy," says 
Bp. Pearson, " and that, too, even as he is holy. We bring 
no such purity into the world ; nor are we sanctified in the 
womb. But as he was sanctified at his conception, so are we 
at our regeneration. He was conceived, not by man, but by 
the Holy Ghost ; and we are < not of blood, nor of the will of 
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God I ' The same 
overshadowing power which formed his human nature, re- 
forraeth ours. He which was born for us upon his incarnation, 
must be born within us upon our regeneration." Reader, do 
you thus know the Incarnation of Jesus and its practical bene- 
fits ? Is " Christ formed in you ? " Are you " born from 
above ? " Has " God made known to you the riches of the 
glory of this mystery, — which is Christ m you^ the hope of 
glory ? " 

* Quod semel natum est ex Maria, quotidie et in nobis nascitur. Comm. in 
Ps. Ixxxiv. 17. 



149 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 



Christianity is emphatically an historical religion. Not 
a system of theoretical divinity — a collection of conjectures 
and disputations on speculative truth ; but a record of certain 
facts, which came under the personal notice of competent and 
honest witnesses ; were by those witnesses proclaimed to their 
co-temporaries, and by those co-temporaries being received, 
have been, through successive hands transmitted to us, a« the 
history of Christ, his person, his sayings, his doings, his 
sufferings, his triumph. The Gospel of Christ is accurately- 
" The glad tidings concerning Christ." 

But then, Christ's history is throughout symbolical. That 
is ; not only plain, and well-attested matter of fact ; but matter of 
fact which has in it a doctrinal significance. The events of our 
Lord's life are not only true as regards the history of the man 
Jesus, but they contain within themselves a representation of 
what is true concerning the men whom he came to save. That 
which our Lord became and did and suffered, he became and 
did and suffered, not simply as a man, — one among the my- 
riads of human beings ; but as The man, — the type and repre- 
sentative of all human being. What he was and did, as an 
individual, he was and did for the race whose nature he took« 
So that we have this double interest in the records of his life 
that they are to us, not only the testimony concerning one on 
whom we repose our faith and hope, but, at the same time, the 
symbol of the privileges which by that faith and hope we per- 



150 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 

sonally enter into. Was Jesus born for us from above ? This 
is a symbol of our Regeneration ; or reunion with the Father 
by his Spirit. Did he die for us on the cross? This is a 
symbol of our Justification ; or reconciliation with the Father 
through his sacrifice. Did he rise again for us from the dead, 
and ascend up into heaven ? This is a symbol of our Exalta- 
tion to the presence of the Father through his intercession. 
Will he come again for us, to put down every enemy, and judge 
the quick and dead ? This is a symbol of our future triumph 
through his power over death and hell. 

You see then the deep personal interest with which these 
several facts concerning Christ, which we recite so constantly 
in our Creed, should be commemorated by us. You see why 
the Church, in directing that this composition form a part of 
our daily service, had in view not merely the preserving a me- 
morial of what is past ; but the nourishing, by such memorial, 
our present faith, and peace and holiness, and hope. The facts 
of Christianity deserve our constant meditation, because they 
constitute the very doctrine, as well as the history of Chris- 
tianity. They have a perpetual as well as temporary, a uni- 
versal as well as particular, truth : they are at once por- 
traits and ideals. 

Thus, in the first great Fact concerning Christ comme- 
morated in the Creed, his Incarnation, we have seen that 
there is included the Idea of our Regeneration — our Re-union 
to the Father — restoration to his image — sustentation in com- 
munion with his Spirit. 

A similar bearing on our spiritual welfare is comprised in 
the next Fact which demands our consideration ; the Death of 
Christ — all that is commemorated by those words of the 
Creed, " He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was cru- 
cified, DEAD AND BURIED ; HE DESCENDED INTO HELL." 

For, all the various particulars here enumerated bring 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 151 

before us just that one truth, which our Second Article main- 
tains, — that Jesus " truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and 
buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to he a sacrifice^, not 
only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men." The 
historical certainty of Christ's death, and the doctrinal meaning 
of that death — the Fact and the Idea — the Symbol and the 
Truth symbolized — these are what we have to dwell upon in 
this chapter. 

The Historical certainty of Christ's death is declared in 
the Creed in so many terms, and with so much repetition, 
because of the relation of this certainty to the miracle of the 
Resurrection ; and the necessity that we should be well as- 
sured that he who rose again had been truly and entirely 
dead. Nor was it less needful to insist on this point, that 
Christ " truly suffered," on account of the errors which were 
at one time brought into the Church by those who, being 
ashamed of the scandal of the cross, and (like the Jews of our 
Lord's own time) unwilling to believe that He who was the 
Christ, the Prince of Life, could possibly die — or he who 
was Divine could suffer — or he who came to destroy death 
should go down into the realms of death — ^maintained that 
this whole scene of ignominious humiliation was only an ap- 
pearance^ not a reality. In opposition to which groundless 
fiction, you are referred in the Creed to all the circumstances 
of the time, the manner, the consequences, of the death of 
Jesus, as plain, literal, well-attested facts. 

As to the Time^ " he suffered under Pontius Pilate," when 
Judaea was under the presidency of that Roman Governor, 
whom every one knows to have administered the affairs of 
that province for ten years, from the twelfth to the twenty- 
second year of the Emperor Tiberius Csesar ; that is from the 
year of our Lord 26 to 36 ; and who himself, in his official 



15:2 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 

reports to the Emperor, makes mention of Jesus and his exe- 
cution. 

As to the Marnier of his death, our Lord was " crucified ;" 
a mode of punishment the more important to be recorded, not 
only because of its connection with the end for which Christ 
died, but as illustrating the wondrous way in which God 
accomplishes his purposes, and brings to pass things which to 
the judgment of man seem irreconcileable. It was our Lord's 
own prophecy, " If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw- 
all men unto me;" "which," adds St. John, " he said, signify- 
ing what death " — what sort of death, namely by being lifted up 
upon a cross — " he should die." John xii. 32, 33. And yet 
the persecutors of Jesus, as you know, were Jews ; and the 
Jews had not then the legal power of putting any one to 
death; (John xviii. 31 ;) and even if they had possessed it, 
crucifixion, — lifting up upon, and nailing to, a cross of wood 
— was not a Jewish mode of execution. And yet Jesus was 
put to death ; and that by crucifixion ! How ? Through the 
malicious cunning of those Jews — who knowing their own 
inability to punish him capitally for what they deemed his 
offences against the ecclesiastical law — the Church; accused 
him to the Roman Governor of offences against the State, and 
delivered him over to Pontius Pilate as a prisoner of the 
State, and prevailed by clamour on that unjust Judge to inflict 
on him the punishment assigned to ofi"enders against the State 
— the Roman punishment for rebellion against the Roman 
authority — which was crucifixion. And thus the innocent Jesus, 
according to his own prediction, (so strange an one that his 
Apostles could not understand one word of it !) was " de- 
livered over to the Gentiles, to be mocked, and spitefully en- 
treated, and spitted on ;" (Luke xviii. 32) and to die, accord- 
ing to the manner of the Gentiles! So wondrously does 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 153 

God " declare the end from the beginning, and from 
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying My 
counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure !" Isa. 
xlvi. 10. 

But next, as to the Consequences of the crucifixion of 
Christ; — they are declared in the Creed to be such, to the 
full extent, as those which ordinarily attend the true, real, 
finished death of a mortal man, " He was dead — was buried — 
descended into hell." That when he hung upon the Cross he 
became truly " dead,'" you have the testimony of the eye-wit- 
ness St. John, who tells us that " when the soldiers," who were 
commissioned to dispatch the criminals, should there be found 
any life still lingering in them, and to put an end to their suf- 
ferings, " came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already^ 
they brake not his legs " (as they had done with the thieves 
which were crucified with him) " but one of the soldiers with 
a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood 
and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is 
true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that you might 
believe." John xix. 33, 34. That he was " buried^' you have 
the testimony of all the Evangelists, and of the women who 
both embalmed the lifeless corpse, and also " followed after 
and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid,'' Luke 
xxiii. oS. And that he " descended into hell" is added to make 
assurance doubly sure ; to commemorate the entire separation 
of the soul from the body ; and its passage onward into the 
region of departed spirits ; even as David had predicted when 
he said " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." Ps. xvi. 1 0. 
Acts ii. 27, 31. For I need not tell you that by the word 
" hell" in that passage, and therefore in the clause of our 
Creed /or which that passage is the warrant, is meant, not the 
place of torment, but the unseen world, according to the primary 

H 5 



154 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 

meaning of the Saxon word " helan," that which is covered 
over, — is concealed — is unseen.* 

Such then is the Historical Certainty of that Great Fact, 
the Death of Christ — " he was crucified, dead, and buried ; he 
descended into hell." We pass on now to the Doctrinal 
MEANING of that death — the truth which is symbolized by 
that fact — its all-important significance with reference to our 
souls. 

Now this doctrinal meaning is no less than what the Nicene 
CreedJ commemorates when it says " He was crucified also /or 
us ;'' — and the Athanasian Creed when it declares " He suf- 
fered for our salvatio7i ;" — and the Second Article of our 
Church when it adds, " he truly suffered, was crucified, dead, 
and buried, to reconcile the Father to us, and to be a sacrifice 
for si7i;" — and, surer than all, the " most certain warrant" of 
all, what the inspired Apostle teaches us when he says to the 
Corinthians, " I delivered unto you, frst of all, that which I 
also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to 
the Scriptures ;" (1 Cor. xv. 3) — nay, and what the Lord him- 
self, before that death, so plainly announced to his disciples ; 
" The Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minis- 
ter, and to ffive his life a ransom for many ;" (Matt. xx. 28) 
— yea, and what he has commanded to be kept continually be- 

* We find this primary meaning, from the same Saxon I'oot, lingering in our 
common verb "fo Aea/," i. e. to cover over a wound, to cicatrize : as when we 
eay " The wound Iveals favourably," (" The last stage of healing, or skinning 
over, is called cicatrization." Sharp's Surgery.) 

The verj"- phrases used of our Lord's resurrection imply his real and complete 
departure from this life — his both dying, and being buried, and going down 
into the region of departed spirits. He is said to have risen, not simply from 
deaths (or what might have appeared so) but " from among the dead : " \k 
jiy.guv, 1 Cor. XV. 12, and a-xo ruv nx^uv (Mat. xxvii. 7) ; and to have been 
''brought again from among the dead," {Ik viK^Zv) Heb. xiii. 20. 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 155 

fore our faith, by a commemorative ordinance, to the end of 
time ; — " This is my body which is given for your '* This is 
my blood of the new testament which is shed for many, for 
the remission of sins!' Lukexxii. 19. Matt. xxvi. 28. The 
Fact of Christ's death, what would it be to us more than that 
of any other martyr for truth and holiness, were it not for the 
doctrine involved in that death ? The dignity of the sufferer 
we might admire ; his agonies we might sympathise with ; his 
fidelity to conscience we might extol, and perhaps strive to 
imitate ; but what is all this compared to those results in con- 
nexion with which the Scriptures set this fact before us ? Why 
should we find the preaching of that death made the specific, 
characteristic topic of Christianity ? — why should we be taught 
to look continually to that death as the very ground of all our 
peace and hope ? — why should we have been enjoined, by the 
sufferer himself, to keep up a perpetual memorial of that death 
till his coming again ? — were it not for the doctrine which by 
this fact is symbolized, the truth which is included in it ; that 
" Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor. xv. 3) — that " he gave him- 
self a ransom for all." (1 Tim. ii. 6) — that " we are sancti- 
fied," i. e. made acceptable to God, " through the offering of 
the body of Jesus Christ, once for all?" Heb. x. 10. 

It is then, of Christ's death as a Sacrifice for sin — an ex- 
piatory offering for your manifold transgressions of God's law, 
that you are called on to remind yourself, every time you say 
the Creed ; — a Sacrifice, like those Mosaic offerings with which 
it is compared, by which your Justification, or Reconciliation 
to the Father is effected — is testified — is brought to bear upon 
your heart and life I 

For this, you will remember, was the object for which God 
graciously appointed those sacrifices of the law of Moses, with 
which the death of Jesus is so frequently, (and more espe- 
cially in the ninth and tenth chapters of the Epistle to the 



156 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 

Hebrews) compared. Read, and meditate upon, the injunc- 
tions concerning those expiatory rites, in the fourth chapter of 
the book of Leviticus. See who they are intended for; what 
they are appointed to be a sign of to them ; and what was the 
efficacy of them as regarded the relation of the oflPerer to the 
Lord his God. And you will then be able to enter into the 
meaning and importance of Christ's death as thus a sacrifice 
for sins. 

You learn there, that when " any soul among the children 
of Israel had sinned against any of the commandments of the 
Lord, concerning things which ought not to be done, and had 
done against them," — was he an anointed Priest, or an 
authoritative Elder — or one of the common people, — then, 
" when his sin which he had sinned came to his knowledge," 
when he became conscious of the guilt that he had contracted 
before the Holy One, he was to bring his ofifering to the 
Lord, for a sin-offering ; and was to lay his hand upon the 
head of the offering, and slay it for a sin-offering ; and the 
officiating priest was to take of the blood of this sin-offering, 
and put it upon the horns of the altar, and sprinkle it seven 
times before the Lord, and thus he should " make an atone- 
ment for his sin that he had committed, and it should be for- 
given him" In which last sentence you learn that the object 
of the whole transaction was the Reconciliation of the offender 
to his God — the justifying him, or restoring him to righteous- 
ness in the sight of the Lord — the testifying, applying, and 
bringing home to his fearful conscience the great truth that God 
is merciful and gracious, long-suffering and of great goodness, 
not willing the death of a sinner, but rather that he should 
turn from his wickedness and live ; that so, having come 
up before God as a self- condemned transgressor of his laws, 
he might go away again assured that his guilt was done away? 
his sin forgiven him. 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 157 

Throw yourself back therij for a moment, into the mind of 
this poor Jewish transgressor. Conceive the horror with 
which he would discover that he had sinned against the holy, 
just, severe, inflexible, threatening, law of God, when " his 
sin which he had sinned came to his knowledge ;" when his 
conscience became awakened to it ; when, being reminded of 
the requirements of the law, their bearing on his own par- 
ticular conduct became clear, and there came forth from 
them, straight into his heart, that not to be mistaken, not to 
be eluded, voice of solemn accusation, Thou art the man I 
He knows the guilt he has contracted. He knows the penalty 
denounced. But, blessed be God, he knows also the remedy 
provided ! He hastens to procure the appointed sacrifice, the 
choicest of his flock or of his herd. He brings it, trembling, 
into the sacred courts of the temple, before the holy altar 
of the Lord. He lays his hand upon the victim ; transfers, 
by this significant action, his own guilt on the head of that 
which stands before God as his representative and substitute ; 
and waits in anxious expectation for the sign of its acceptance 
in his name. 

And what if you, too, are a transgressor, like that son of 
Abraham ? Has your sin come to your knowledge ? Are 
you awake to the ofl"ences that you have been guilty of against 
the holy law of God ? Do you feel that you indeed mean 
what you say when you confess before the throne of the Most 
High, " I have erred and strayed from thy ways like a lost 
sheep. I have followed too much the devices and desires of 
my own heart. I have offended against tJuj holy laws?'' 
Then, let me ask you, Where is your sacrifice ? Where is 
your warrant to hope for pardon ? How shall you come before 
the Lord, and bow yourself before the Most High God? 
What shall you interpose between you and his holiness ? By 
what symbol shall you get assured that all the punishment 



158 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 

which you deserve — (you/ee/ that you deserve; you acknow- 
ledge that you deserve) — shall be averted from your head ? O 
there is but one answer to these questions I And that answer 
is given us in the death of Christ, Just what that appointed 
sacrifice was to the penitent Jew, just that, is the death of 
CHRIST to you, " He bore our sins in his own body on the tree." 
Him, you may beseechingly present, as your appointed victim, 
substitute, representative, before the presence of God. On 
His head you may lay your hands — on Him transfer your 
guilt — and, with an earnest faith in God's own promise, expect 
that he will be accepted in your stead ! 

But nov/, go back again to that Jewish penitent. See him 
prostrate before the sacrifice which he has offered. Observe 
how his quick eye glances on the doings of the priest in his 
behalf. He sees him take the sacrifice. He dips his finger 
in its blood. He puts of that blood upon the altar. He takes 
of it, and sprinkles before the vail of the sanctuary, before the 
Lord. And by that token the gazing, watching, penitent knows 
that he is accepted ! that the way for his return to worship be- 
fore that sanctuary is cleansed for him ! that nothing any 
longer separates between him and his God ! that he is " p)urged 
with blood ! " 

Now, Christian penitent, here again is truth for you. What 
that significant action was to the Jew, that is the virtue of 
Christ's death to you. You have the Apostle's warrant for this. 
" Christ, being come, an High Priest of good things to come, 
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, 
that is to say, not of this building ; neither by the blood of 
goats and of calves, but by his own blood, entered in once into 
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For 
if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer 
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the 



THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 159 

flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through 
the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge 
your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ? " 
Heb.ix. 11—14. 

And what then is the consequence of this testimony of the 
Reconciliation effected for us by the death of Christ ? Ob- 
serve once more that Jewish penitent. He came up to the 
temple dismayed, cast down, and like the humble publican in 
the parable, " not daring to lift up his eyes to heaven, but 
beating on his breast and crying, God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner ! " But with the energy of a perishing man he seizes on 
the method of reconciliation which God holds out to him ; 
with the kindling eye of hope he watches the blood of his 
sacrifice being sprinkled before the mercy seat ; and 7iow ! the 
object of the expiatory rite — the tneaning of the symbol— the 
blessed truth which it proclaims and seals to him — shine out 
before his mind ; made visible and vivid by the facts which 
God has appointed to assist his faith ; and he embraces them, 
reposes on them, rejoices in them, becomes assured that even 
as God has said, so is it true I " The priest shall make an atone- 
ment for his sin, and it shall be forgiven him !" Now, there- 
fore, does the heavy burthen of guilt fall off from him. Now, 
does he see his uncleanness removed — his reconciliation with 
the Holy One proclaimed — his right to join with the people of 
God, and worship in the temple of God, and chant his praises 
before the presence of God, secured to him. Now, in a word, 
he is ^^ justified!" He is counted righteous before God I He 
is accepted ! And he goes down to his house, with beaming 
countenance, and a light step, and a head erect in musing adora- 
tion, enquiring from his inmost soul. What shall I render to the 
Lord for all the benefits that he hath done unto me I 

And nothing less than this — yea this to an extent, and with 



160 THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 

a fulness, of which that legal justification, after all, was but an 
imperfect type, — is the state of mind which you are authorized 
to rise into, when you look on Jesus as your Sacrifice^ crucified 
for you ! What that assurance of the efficacy of that sin-offer- 
ing was to the Jewish penitent, that is your belief of the virtue 
of Christ's death, to you. " He was made sin for you that you 
might be made the righteousness of God," entirely righteous 
before God, " in Him." 2 Cor. v, 21. And " being justified 
by faith you have peace with God through Jesus Christ your 
Lord ; by whom also you have access by faith into this grace 
wherein you stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." 
Rom. V. 1, 2. " Having therefore^ boldness to enter into the 
holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he 
hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his 
flesh ; and having an high priest over the house of God ; you may 
draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having 
your heart sprinkled from an evil conscience ; " and " the blood 
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleansing you from all sin ! " 
Heb.x. 19—21. 1 John i. 7. 

Is then this the practical result, with you, my reader, of this 
precious doctrine symbolized by that great fact ? Are you 
thus profiting by what you are in the habit of confessing ? O 
take care that you look to nothing else for your acceptance be- 
fore God. And take care, equally, that, looking to the death 
of Christ, you do not, by a want of thorough repentance, or of 
simple trust, or of personal appropriation, defraud your con- 
science of the full tranquillity which God has provided for by 
the sacrifice of his Son. Else will you " frustrate the grace 
of God : for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is 
dead in vain /" Gal. ii. 21. 



161 



'^ 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 



It is a touching circumstance that of all the many particu- 
lars of our Lord's history in the flesh, his sufferings only, his 
ignominious death, are recorded in the Creed, All the graci- 
ous things he said — all the mighty things he did — all the mani- 
festations of his divine wisdom and divine power — these are 
passed over without notice, to come to the commemoration of 
his mournful end : " He suiFered under Pontius Pilate, was cru- 
cified, dead, and buried ; he descended into hell." 

But hereby does the Creed best intimate that great Chris- 
tian truth, that just these very sufferings^ this atoning death, 
formed the one great end for which our Lord was born into 
this world as man ; which everything else was made to tend to- 
wards, and introduce ; and by which, far more than by any- 
thing else, the work of our redemption was accomplished. 
" He took on him flesh and blood, in order that through death 
he might destroy him that had the power of death, and delimr 
them who through fear of death were all their life-time sub- 
ject to bondage." Heb. ii. 14, 15. 

Besides, this final agony, as it was the end for which he came 
into this world, was at the same time the indispensable means 
to a yet further end, beyond this world, his glorification with 
the Father. As surely as it had been predicted that the Christ 
should ascend the throne of universal empire, so surely had 
it been declared that the steps up to that throne should be 
marked with blood — that through previous suffering he should 
mount up to his glory, and then first when he should have 



162 THE CERTAINTY 0^ THE RESURRECTION. 

" given his soul an offering for sin," should he " see his seed, 
and prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord should 
prosper in his hand." Isa. liii. 10, 11. Equally as the Incar- 
nation of Christ is commemorated as one great Article of our 
belief, because it was needful to his Death, so also is that 
Death commemorated, not only for its own intrinsic import- 
ance, but also as being necessary to his Resurrection, and its 
attendant glory. 

To the great Fact, then, of the Resurrection of Christ 
we now address ourselves. For we are to meditate on that 
clause of our Creed, " the third day he rose again from the 

DEAD." 

Where we shall have to notice, first. The historical Certainty 
of the Fact here commemorated ; then, secondly, its practical 
Signijicancy. 



SECTION I. 

THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

The Resurrection of Christ ! Consider seriously, how stu- 
pendous a fact we are about to enter on. Nothing less than 
this : that He who was most certainly crucified, dead, buried ; 
and who passed onward, by the thorough separation of soul 
and body, into the region of departed, disembodied spirits ; — 
he, this same being, did, upon the third day after his cruci- 
fixion rise again from among the dead ; return into this 
present world, re-animate the body which had been extended 
on the cross, and step forth, in the fulness and integrity of 
breathing, animal, life, among his terrified adversaries, and his 
astonished friends. 

I need not transcribe the details of this amazing fact, as 
they are given by the Evangelists. It is one result of the 



THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 



163 



wise regulations of our Church, in bringing these things 
before you in annual festivals, that you know them well, 
Jesus, you know, was crucified upon the Friday ; lay in the 
grave all Saturday ; and on the Sunday, early in the morning, 
stepped forth from the tomb, alive ! Which period of time is in- 
dicated in our Creed by the expression " the third day ;" the 
phrase being taken from St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 4, and St. Mat- 
thew, ch. xvi. 21 ; to which another mode of speaking employed 
by the same Evangelist elsewhere, (xxvii. 62) " after three 
days," is equivalent. For according to the ancient mode of 
computation, in any given period the first and last days, 
or any the smallest portion of them, are included in the 
reckoning. For example : when the Jewish law prescribes 
that a child shall be circumcised " when eight days are accom- 
plished " from its birth ; the day of the birth and the day of 
the circumcision are both reckoned in ; leaving but six entire 
days between the two events.* So again : when Joseph and 
Mary lost the young child Jesus, on their return from Jeru- 
salem ; they went one day's journey homeward ; they spent 
the next day in returning to the city ; and when, on the morn- 
ing of the third, they discovered him, St. Luke describes the 
period of time which had elapsed by saying " After three days 
they found him in the Temple." Luke ii. 46. And you have 
the same mode of computation still existing, in the medical term, 
" a tertian^' or third-day ague ; which reckons in the day on 
which the first paroxysm occurs and the day on which the 
second fit takes place, leaving an interval of only one entire 
day between them. In this way, therefore, " Jesus rose again 
the third day, according to the Scriptures." 1 Cor. xv. 4. 

* The injunction in Levit, xii. 3, is " In tlie eighth day the flesh of his fore- 
skin shall be circumcised." The fulfilment of it, in the case of our Lord, is 
thus narrated by St. Luke, ii. 21, " \^ 'hen eight days were accompUsJwd for the 
circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus." 



164 THE CERTAINTY OF tHE RESURRECTION. 

But how, you will ask — (for just in proportion to the im- 
portance of a fact, it is but proper, it is our duty, to insist on 
satisfactory evidence for that fact) — how do we know this? 

The answer to which question rests upon the general evi- 
dence, which you may read in so many books, at so much 
length, for the general credibility of the sacred writers ; who, 
from their own personal knowledge, their seeing and hearing 
for themselves, have recorded all the circumstances of the 
history of our blessed Lord. The Creed contents itself with 
simply stating what they have delivered to us. For its object 
is not to prove, but only to commemorate, the truths and facts 
of Christianity ; which truths and facts are taken for certain 
and indubitable on the authority of the record in which they 
are preserved to us. 

Yet, seeing that this great fact of the Resurrection is the 
very corner stone of the whole edifice of our faith ; and is 
appealed to by the Apostles, in their sermons and letters, 
as the proof and warrant for every other ; it would be well 
for us frequently to remind ourselves of the strong, substan- 
tial, deep foundations on which it rests. How the original 
witnesses of it had the fullest opportunity for knowing the 
truth concerning it. How there was everything in their cha- 
racter to assure us that they would state that truth and nothing 
else. How manifold were the circumstances to prevent them 
from being mistaken as to that truth. And how striking are 
the collateral proofs, which show, independently of their decla- 
rations, the certainty of that truth. 

Observe then, in the first place. How the original witnesses 
of the Resurrection of Christ had the fullest ojjportunity for 
knowing the truth concerning it. For, who were these persons, 
who proclaimed this fact so boldly to such crowds of their 
countrymen, enemies as well as friends ? Always remember 



THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 165 

they were those who personally knew Jesus ; had been the 
companions of Jesus ; saw with their own eyes the same Lord 
whom they had laid in the tomb restored to them ; and heard 
with their own ears his well-known voice conversing with 
them just as he had done before. We cannot sufficiently 
value this testimony at first hand. Most people think it a 
great thing to get testimony at second hand. There are very 
few facts that we can get at_, otherwise than at third, and 
fourth, and fifth hand. And yet we never hesitate to receive 
such, even when much depends on them. Whereas the Re- 
surrection of Jesus is declared to us by those who lived at the 
very time, in the very place, with him of whom they testify. 
Matthew, who is one of the witnesses, was one of his chosen 
Apostles. John, who is another, was besides this his bosom 
friend. And what do they tell us concerning him ? That 
they heard from somebody that he had seen the Lord pass 
along, in his manner as he lived ? or from another that he 
had actually accosted him ? or from another that, like John 
and Andrew, at the first, he had "followed him and seen 
where he dwelt, and abode with him ? " Nay : all this would 
be much : but this is nothing to their actual testimony. These 
men themselves who wrote these gospels, themselves saw their 
well-known, their beloved Master ; themselves touched him, 
sat at table with him, ate with him, conversed with him ; and, 
in a word, '^ to them he showed himself alive, after he was 
risen from the dead, by many infallible proofs'' Acts i. 3. 

But then, consider in the second place, How there was 
everything in the character of these witnesses to assure us that 
they would state that truth, and nothing but that truth, which 
they had such full opportunity of knowing. I scarcely like to 
begin by reminding you that they could not but wish to state it 
— that they were honest men, -and not impostors. For to and 



166 THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

one who has read his Bible, and become familiar with the say- 
ings and doings of the first Teachers of Christianity, there is 
such a firm, deep, ineffaceable impression formed upon his 
mind, of their simplicity — integrity — straight-forwardness, — 
that the very thought, even for the sake of argument, of sup- 
posing it possible for a moment that they were acting a part, is 
painful and revolting, not merely to the reverence and love 
which he has, by this familiarity, contracted for them, but to 
every feeling of consistency and common sense. He could as 
soon admit suspicion concerning his father, or his mother, or 
the wife of his bosom. He feels that he could stake his very 
existence on their honesty and truth. 

But nevertheless, do just look at their simplicity of charac- 
ter. They were not learned men, polished men, men of busi- 
ness, whose modes of thinking and acting were formed amidst 
the subtleties of the schools, or the chicanery of the world ; 
and who thus might possibly contract a tendency to exaggerate, 
to[ colour, to modify, to suppress, to put the best face on a 
matter, if not to invent. They were just the reverse of all 
this. Most of them fishermen, sailors on the rough and bois- 
terous deep, whose perfect transparency of character is to all 
eyes so manifest, that the very epithet we most commonly use 
for such men is " an honest tar." 

Nor is their rough straight-forwardness, without a thought of 
consequences, and with no attempt to manage matters, less 
conspicuous. Look at all they write concerning their Master, 
and their Master's enemies, and themselves. They make no 
scruple of telling how he was abused, and mocked at, and 
despised. They hide not from us how his adversaries were 
those whom every Jew esteemed the wisest, and most sancti- 
fied, and most powerful and reverend of men ; nay that in his 
own city, and among his own family, and from his own bre- 
thren^ he experienced unbelief, and taunt, and opposition. 



THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 167 

And as for themselves ; they let you into the secret of their 
mutual jealousies and rivalries ; of how they disputed who 
should be the greatest ; of how some of them called for fire 
from heaven to consume their adversaries ; of how another 
first took his Lord to task for speaking of humiliation, and 
then afterwards, when that humiliation came, denied him with 
an oath ; of how they all of them were reproached by their 
Master for their dulness of comprehension, and their lack of 
faith ; yea and all of them, at last, forsook him and fled ! 
And are these the men to make up a story, either for their 
own, or for their Master's reputation? Are these such as 
would readily catch at a delusion ? Had they the trickiness to 
try their hand at a falsehood ? Or had they the cleverness to 
succeed in it, if they could have tried ? 

Nay, more than this. You must not overlook, in consider- 
ing their character, their vehemence — their oriental, Jewish 
vehemence ; which of itself, so far from leading them to make 
up something to save their Master's credit, would rather have 
impelled them, in the outburst of their indignation at being 
disappointed and deceived, to be the first to proclaim to all the 
world what a false Messiah had palmed himself upon them. 
As hasty as they are to follow him when things go well, so 
hasty are they to desert and to deny him, when a change takes 
place. You see signs of this temper, in their history, not a 
few. When Jesus was first taken prisoner and they saw him 
make no demonstration of his power against his enemies, 
where is their fidelity? where their efi"ort to bolster up his 
cause ? " They all forsook him and fled I " And when one of 
them, with some lingering affection, crept back again to see 
how matters were going on ; what disposition does he show to 
make the best of things, and stand up for his friend? Why ! 
the mere curiosity of a servant girl makes him steal out into 
the porch I And when he is again attacked, he makes no 



168 THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

scruple of at once protesting, even with an oath, I do not know 
the man I And how felt the disciples going to Emmaus, when 
the death of Christ at last had taken place, and all seemed 
lost ? Were they occupied in contriving some scheme to piece 
together again their shattered cause ? Had they that recollec- 
tion of his own predictions, which the sharper memory of 
malice had kept up in the Pharisees ; so as to be as full of 
foresight and activity to plan his removal from the tomb as 
the High-priest and the Elders had been to take care that he 
should not be removed ? Nothing of the kind I They only 
vented their bitter sorrow, almost indignation, in that despair- 
ing complaint, " We trusted that it had been He who should 
have redeemed Israel I" Luke xxiv. 21. 

Were such men, then, I ask, either disposed to tell you, or 
i^apahle of telling you, concerning this grand fact of the Resur- 
rection of Christ, anything but the plain and simple truth ? 

Add now, thirdly ; How manifold were the circumstances to 
prevent their being mistaken as to that truth: — to render it as 
impossible that they should be deceived themselves^ as that they 
should be willing to deceive others. 

For consider, first, that their state of mind was altogether 
against the expectation of such an event. It was not as if they 
had got possessed with the notion that their Lord would rise 
again, and, therefore, were ready to catch at any appearances, 
or any rumours, which might square with their preconceived 
expectations. So far from this, that though Jesus had re- 
peatedly told them he would rise again, they had not the 
slightest conception of what he meant. A dying Messiah 
they could not believe. And, therefore, a rising one they could 
form, no notion of. And consequently, while the more shrewd 
Pharisees were all on the alert; expecting and providing 
against an attempt on the part of the disciples to realize their 



THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 169 

Master's prophecy, and steal his body from the tomb ; those 
disciples themselves, so far from any such thought, were utterly 
thunderstruck at the news of his actual removal. When the 
women first told them he was gone, " their words seemed to 
them as idle tales, and they believed them not." Luke xxiv. 11. 
When Jesus actually came and stood in the midst of them, 
" they were terrified and afi^righted, and supposed that they 
had seen a spirit." Luke xxiv. SI. And even when he spoke 
to them, and called on them to handle him and see, they yet 
^'believed not, for joy, and wondered!" Luke xxiv. 41. So 
that, so far from ready credulity ; or enthusiastic self-decep- 
tion ; or a greediness to believe what they were longing to 
find true ; one cannot read the narratives which they have 
penned about their several interviews with their Lord, without 
being amazed, almost indignant, that they should have so long 
resisted such repeated proofs ; and been such "fools and slow 
of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken I " Luke 
xxiv. 25. 

Nor, further, if there had been, in any of them, this pre- 
disposition, from afi"ection, or zeal, or ambition, to believe what 
was for them so glorious a fact, if true, was the evidence for 
that fact left to be furnished hy themselves alone. One of the 
most striking proofs, (because a totally undesigned one) is the 
testimony of their very adversaries., to this fact. The very 
story which the Pharisees circulated, and which the Jews be- 
lieved, to account for our Lord's removal from the tomb, con- 
tains within itself the proclamation — is based upon the full, 
though certainly the most unconscious admission — that such a 
fact had actually taken place. For if Jesus had not left the 
tomb, why invent a story to account for liow he left it ? And 
yet the very same men who got a guard of soldiers from 
Pilate, and " made the sepulchre sure, setting a watch," lest 
" his disciples should steal him away, and say unto the people 



170 THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

He is risen from the dead ;" these very same men receive a 
testimony, (which testimony they evidently believe, and have 
no doubt whatever of its truth) from the very guards whom they 
themselves had set over the sepulchre, that he is gone ! " Some 
of the watch came into the city and shewed unto the chief 
priests all the things that were done." Matt, xxviii. 11. And 
then those Rulers, on the strength of this fact thus reported to 
them by their own agents — because of this fact — admitting 
this fact — and taking counsel in full and earnest conclave on 
this fact — " give large money to the soldiers, saying. Say ye, 
his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept ; 
and if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, 
and secure you I" Matt, xxviii. 13, 14. And thus, by taking 
all this pains to spread abroad an explanation of the thing, 
they furnish us, from their own ex-parte, independent, state- 
ment, on the testimony of their own soldiers, a full proof that 
THE THING ITSELF HAD TAKEN PLACE. The tomb was empty ! 
The Lord was gone I Just as those same men, when they 
accused Jesus of casting out devils through Beelzebub, did, by 
that very accusation, that malignant effort to account for the 
fact, furnish to us their own independent, reluctant testimony 
to that fact — that such miracles Jesus certainly did perform. 
They attempt not to deny the cures : these were staring them 
in the face. But they offer a calumnious account of the means 
of cure. And in that very effort they give their evidence that 
cures there were. " Lord, thou dost make the wrath of man 
to praise thee, and the remainder thereof thou dost restrain !" 

Besides ; — not merely to the personal friends of Jesus, — 
and not merely to his enemies, — was the fact of his resurrec- 
tion made thus plain ; but also to a large number of his gene- 
ral disciples, to whom at several times, in several places, at 
several intervals, he " showed himself alive after his passion 
by many infallible proofs." Acts i, 3. Look at St. Paul's 



THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 171 

enumeration of such proofs, in his First Epistle to the Corin- 
thians (xv. 5 — 8) " He was seen of Cephas ; then, of the 
twelve ; after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren 
at once ; of whom the greater part remain unto this present^ 
What a natural touch is that I How it glows with conscious 
honesty and truth ! As if the Apostle had said — ''^ They are 
still within your reach ; you may go and ask them, or any one 
of them ; you can cross-question them ; they will corroborate, 
from the evidence of their own eye-sight, what I am now deli- 
vering to you !" O how fully authorized are we — yea how 
solemnly bounds by our allegiance to truth — when we run 
over, however hastily, all these heaped-up proofs, to acknow- 
ledge, (in the words of St. Luke,) " the certainty of those 
things wherein we have been instructed ; and which were most 
surely believed among the earliest Christians, even as they deli- 
vered them unto them, which from the beginning were eye- 
witnesses and ministers of the word !" Luke i. 1 — 4. Yea, how 
triumphantly may we point to the bold assertion of St. Peter, 
" We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made 
known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
but were eye-witnesses of his majesty /" 2 Peter i. 16. 

And yet, there is still another mode of proof of this great 
event, the Resurrection of Christ, which goes beyond the tes- 
timony even of professed eye-witnesses, because it is made up 
by striking collateral incidents^ which show, independently of all 
direct assertion, that such a fact must have occurred. 

This deserves our sustained consideration. It is an argu- 
ment from effects to their cause ; from manifest consequents, 
to an adequate antecedent. Look then at the consequents 
following on the asserted Fact of the Resurrection of Jesus, 
as you see them manifested among all classes of the Jewish 
population. 

I 2 



172 THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

Begin with the enemies of Jesus. You will find a manifest 
change of j^osition, in relation to him, which ean be accounted 
for only by his triumphant Resurrection. The class of men 
to whom he was most zealously opposed during his life-time, 
and by whose hatred he was brought to the cross, were the 
Pharisees : while the Sadducees regarded him chiefly with a 
calm contempt, as an enthusiast, and contented themselves 
with opposing speculative cavils to his announcement of the 
kingdom of heaven, and of everlasting life. Yet the very 
earliest records of the Acts of the Apostles show that some 
remarkable event must have occurred, to place the character 
of Jesus in a difi'erent relation towards both these sects. For 
you find that the Sadducees have become the active opponents 
of his followers ; while the Pharisees not only are sometimes 
ready to defend them, but actually yield many converts, from 
their ranks, to Christ. " As they spake unto the people" says 
St. Luke, Acts iv. 1, " the priests and the captain of the 
temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them." And again, 
Acts V. 1 7, " The high priest rose up, and all they that were 
with him/* (were on his side, of his way of thinking) " which 
is the sect of the Sadducees^ and were filled with indignation, 
and laid their hands on the Apostles, and put them in the 
common prison." While, on the other hand, " There stood 
up one in the council, a Tharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor 
of the law, had in reputation among all the people," and ad- 
vised the assembly to " refrain from these men and let them 
alone," with the intimation that the work might he of God and 
that their enemies might be found " fighting even against 
God !" " And to him they agreed." Acts v. 34 — 40. And 
when Paul was brought before the council, (Acts xxiii. 1) 
while the high priest Ananias " commanded him to be smit- 
ten on the mouth," " theg that were of the Pharisees part arose 
and strove, saying We find no evil in this man I" And how 



THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 173 

many converts passed over from this class of men to Christi- 
anity you may learn, not only from the declaration of St. Luke 
that " a great company of the priests were obedient to the 
faith ;" Act vi. 7, but also from the painful fact that by such 
converts, bringing with them much of their former Judaical 
mode of thinking, the earliest churches were thrown into con- 
fusion ; and the righteousness of the law was still insisted on, 
under the banners of him who came to be the end of the law, 
that righteousness might be reckoned simply to them that 
believe. 

Now, such are the intimations of a great and unlooked-for 
change among the enemies of Jesus : — a transference of active 
opposition from one party to another : — those who had despised 
him now showing hate ; those who had hated him now begin- 
ning to show reverence. Can this have taken place without 
an adequate cause ? And what cause is adequate to such a 
marked and extensive result? The Resurrection of Christ. 
alone affords a solution of the problem ; is actually referred to 
by those who record the phenomena, (not in the way of argu- 
ment, but incidentally, as part of their mere dry historical 
information) as the solution by which those phenomena are 
explained. 

For, it was the meanness of Jesus which disappointed the 
Pharisees. They were looking for a Messiah. They were will- 
ing for a season to rejoice in John's light when he proclaimed 
to them the Messiah as at hand. But they could discern no 
traces of what they looked for in the lowly Jesus. While the 
Sadducees, on the contrary, cared for no kingdom of God, 
believed no life to come. The same fact therefore, which, as 
proving the greatness of Jesus, would conciliate to him the 
minds of the Pharisees, would by contradicting their scepticism 
only exasperate the Sadducees. A continued life beyond the 
grave, this the one party looked for ; and were willing to listen 



174 THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

when they heard it asserted concerning Jesus : this the other 
party denied; and began to persecute those who proclaimed 
aloud its proof in the resurrection of Christ. And thus they 
changed sides, in relation to our Lord. St. Luke, quite un- 
designedly shows us that they did so from this very cause. For 
why did the Sadducees come upon the Apostles ? " Being 
grieved," he says, " that they taught the people and 2:)reached 
through Jesus,'' by their testimony concerning Jesus, by their 
reference to his rising again, " the resurrection from the dead." 
Acts iv. 2. And what was it that filled the high priest and 
the sect of the Sadducees with indignation^ and made them lay 
hands on the Apostles ? Acts v. 17. You learn the reason 
from verse 20^ where you are told what those Apostles had 
been preaching ; namely, " all the words of this life" — the 
doctrine of the life to come through Christ and his Resurrec- 
tion. And what, on the other hand called forth the Pharisees 
in defence of Paul;, and caused dissension between them and 
the Sadducees ? Because " he cried out in the council, of the 
hojoe and resurrection of the dead I am called in question !" 
'^ For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither 
angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both." Acts xxiii. 



But go on, secondly, to the general multitude of the Jews. 
You find even among them, a wondrous change of feeling, 
after the resurrection of Jesus ; which change you cannot 
trace to any other cause than their conviction of the certainty 
of that resurrection. When Jesus taught in person upon earth 
there were multitudes who sought from him relief for their 
bodily necessities — there were many who listened to his public 
teaching and wondered at his miracles, — but how few who 
joined themselves to him as his followers ! We read of but lit- 
tle more than some few single instances. We read not that he 



THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 175 

had so many avowed disciples, — as a body of men, — as John 
the Baptist, his forerunner. And we find him at last, with 
eleven persons only who cleaved to him as their Master, and 
a few women who ministered to his wants ; while the crowds 
who had shouted so loudly Hosanna to the Son of David ! a 
few days afterwards cried out as lustily, Crucify him ! 

Such was the state of things among the multitude before the 
death of Jesus. What was the state of things within two 
months afterwards? They who were insusceptible of the 
appeals of the divine Master, are roused up, as by magic, 
through the preaching of his feeble disciples. They whO;, 
before, at the utmost gave their admiration and applause ; now 
give themselves. They who followed him for their personal 
advantage, now forsake all to join themselves to his church. 
They who came casually to listen to his words, now dedicate 
themselves publicly by a solemn rite, to the permanent confes- 
sion of his name. On the day of Pentecost, the very first 
occasion of the Apostles' preaching, " there were added to the 
church about three thousand souls." Acts ii. 41. Nor did the 
work stop here. Men were not taken by surprise. When 
time was given for further enquiry ; when the rising opposi- 
tion of the Sadducees threatened danger to the newly formed 
society and all who should join it; when everything called on 
men to he sure of what they were about ; and to act not from 
impulse but conviction — not from persuasion but from well- 
tried evidence; still, " many of them which heard the word 
believed, and the number of the men was about five thou- 
sand." Acts iv. 4. 

Now, why was all this ? Whence this change ? Do not 
the very facts, as they stand in the Evangelist's narrative, 
assure us that there must have been some corresponding 
change in the position of Jesus — some great crisis in his his- 
tory — which presented him before the public eye in a light 



1 76 THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

altogetlier different from that in which they had hitherto 
beheld him ? And what was that change ? What that crisis ? 
Was it his ignominious death ? Was it the sinking of that 
Sun of Righteousness below the horizon in all the lurid horror 
of a tempestuous eve ? Nay, but it was just what folloieed on 
that death ! It was the 7'ising again of that same Sun in all the 
cloudless majesty of the morning of the Resurrection ! — this is 
the fact to which the historic narrative refers us as the solu- 
tion of these phenomena — this is the fact, which these very 
phenomena themselves, by their strangeness, by their utter 
unaccountableness on any other supposition, authenticate to 
us as an acknowledged certainty. It was when St. Peter had 
proclaimed, on the day of Pentecost, " This Jesus hath God 
raised up^ whereof we all are witnesses," that the multitude 
cried to hira and to the rest of the Apostles, " Men and bre- 
thren what shall we do ?" Acts ii. 32. It was '' the word" 
of Christ's resurrection which men, " when they had heard, 
believed V' Acts iv. 4. Comp. 33. 

And now look, in the last place, at the friends of Jesus. 
What say you to the manifest change in temper, character, 
sentiments and doings, of the Apostles, after the death of 
Jesus, as compared with what they were before that death? 
In the first part of their history you behold them ignorant, 
timid, almost servile : in the second, full of wisdom ; insight 
into Scripture truth ; boldness in declaring it ; and inspired 
with the temper of heroes, yea of Prophets of the Lord- 
Could the mere death of their Master have wrought this differ- 
ence ? that death, the very mention of which they had always 
shuddered at, as the death-blow of their hopes ? If they who 
believed in 5 e?,n^ present, were such mere children ; would their 
necessary unbelief in Jesus absent, thus transform them into 
such determined men ? Or, if when they were honest, but 



THE CERTAINTY OF THE RESURRECTION. 177 

mistaken, followers of a supposed Messiah, their characters 
were so feeble ; was there any thing in their starting up to 
become dishonest partizans of one proved to them an impostor, 
to throw around those characters such a godlike dignity ? 
Does brazen-fronted vice exhibit ordinarily such a noble bear- 
ing, as those men did upon the day of Pentecost, before the 
thousands who were cut by them to the heart ? — or, afterwards, 
before the council, who could not terrify them even by brutal 
scourging ? or, through all their subsequent history, when they 
purchased by their story, not honour, wealth, and power, but 
only insult, torture, death ? And if then the death of Jesus 
could never have produced this change ; — if, further, an in- 
vention of the story of the Resurrectmi of Jesus could never 
have produced this change; — what could produce.it but the 
very fact to which they constantly, (and that too uncontradicted 
and unchallenged) themselves refer that change? — the fact 
which in our Creed we commemorate, that Christ indeed and 

truly " ROSE AGAIN THE THIRD DAY FROM THE DEAD ?" I do 

say, that even if you had no record of the Resurrection of 
Christ, come down to you, and authenticated as it is ; yet if 
you merely had the history of his Apostles after their Master s 
death, standing out as it does in such amazing contrast with 
their history before his death, you would be driven to demand 
some adequate reason for that change — which adequate reason 
is furnished to you only in that Fact, which with such prodi- 
gality of proof is witnessed to you, that their Master rose again 
the third day from the dead! 



j5 



178 
SECTION II. 

THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

If you investigate all the many theories of education, you 
will convince yourself that there is no effectual method of in- 
struction but the teaching by means o^ facts : — facts, not bar- 
ren and unconnected, a mere heap of phenomena ; but facts, 
pregnant with a meaning, and bearing in their bosom their 
own interpretation — facts which, through the outward senses, 
speak to the inner soul ; and wake up there a wisdom that can 
never die. 

And it is much to be noted that just this very method 
is that which God himself, the great Father of our race, has 
taken for the education of his human children. Throughout 
the whole circle of his relations to us, it is by /acts that he 
teaches us every truth that bears upon our present and eternal 
welfare. In nature, it is by the Facts of the visible world, 
that his invisible being, " even his eternal power and Godhead, 
are clearly seen." Rom. i. 20. " The heavens declare the 
glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy-work ; 
they have no speech nor language, yet their lesson is gone 
out unto the ends of the earth." Ps. xix. 1,3. In providence, 
it is by the Facts of the social world, private, family, and 
national, that his fundamental laws of moral government are 
made known to us, so that "whosoever is wise and will ob- 
serve these things, even they shall understand the loving 
kindness of the Lord." Ps. cvii. 43. And even in Revela- 
tion — direct disclosure of God's mind and will — it is by Facts 
made visible to the senses that the truths infused into the 
mind of God's messengers are both illustrated and enforced. 
The Law of Moses was kept before the eyes of the people by 



THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 179 

tiie Institutions of Moses — the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the 
festivals. The predictions of the prophets were made plain 
by the actions of the prophets ; the yoke which one carried, in 
the sight of the people — the staff and bands which another 
displayed — the various signs by which they drew attention 
to their message, and at the same time stamped the substance 
of that message on the very senses of mankind. 

Now just such symbols of the truths which God would 
teach us by his Son, are the main events in the history of our 
blessed Lord : such speaking and didactic Facts ; awakening 
in the mind some spiritual idea ; and rousing in the heart 
some moral feelings, which regulate and influence our whole 
relation and behaviour towards the unseen God. 

And among these symbols, not the least striking and signi- 
ficant, is the great Fact of the resurrection of Christ. We have 
seen, in the preceding Section, its Historical certainty ; let us 
now consider its practical Significancy. 

And first, as regards The Truth of which it is the symbol ; the 
Spiritual Idea, of which the external fact is the sensible repre- 
sentative. This is no other than that of the believer's trans- 
ference, through participation in Christ's life, into the presence 
of the Father, as a member of his family and partaker of his fa- 
vour. As the Death of Christ is the symbol of our Pardon ; 
so the Resurrection of Christ is the symbol of our Acceptance. 
As, through faith in the one we are to look on ourselves as re- 
lieved, in Christ, from all guilt ; so through faith in the other we 
are to look on ourselves as admitted, in Christ, to all blessed- 
ness ; as no longer members of the commonwealth of earth, but 
citizens of heaven — no longer imprisoned in the flesh, but 
emancipated into the region of spirit in which Christ dwells. 
For, what says the Apostle Paul, to the Romans ? " Know 
ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ 



180 THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

were baptized into his death — that like as Christ was raised up 
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life ?" that is, should act henceforth 
as if raised up into a new sphere of being — transferred into a 
new world. " For if we be dead with Christ we believe that 
we shall also live with him,"— that is, we trust, that having 
passed away with him from our lower state of being, we shall 
keep on living with him in a higher state — even in the enjoy- 
ment of God's presence and favour — " for in that he died, he 
died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, 
but alive unto God'' — look on yourselves as persons who have 
risen from the domain of Satan into the domain of God, — 
"through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. vi. 1 — 11. The 
whole passage, you will perceive the more you study it, is not 
an exhortation to walk in accordance with the Idea of one 
transferred into a heavenly state ; (this follows after when it is 
said, as the practical conclusion from the spiritual premise, 
" Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body ") but it is a 
call to the Christian to make himself familiar with that Idea 
itself as it is symbolized to him by the Resurrection of Christ, 
and his connexion therewith ; — to learn and believe that he is 
one, (and is to look upon himself habitually as one,) who 
through a vital union with his risen Lord, has been transferred 
into the heavenly regions, and domiciled, and domesticated (if 
I may use the phrase) with God himself. The privilege sym- 
bolized is the first thing — the duty^ which out of our conviction 
of that privilege must flow, is the second. Consider how in 
Christ you are exalted to God ; and then, and therefore, 
" yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the 
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto 
God." Rom. vi. 1 3. 

Whence you perceive how similar is this passage to that 



THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 181 

other one of St. Paul, to the Ephesians, (which equally treats 
of spiritual^ not of morale resurrection) in which he reminds 
them that even by the same power which God exerted on 
Christ when he raised him from the dead, so, " you also hath 
he quickened ;" — or spiritually and ideally raised up from the 
dead, transferred from the banishment and exile of an outcast 
whom God has counted as lost, and " dead " to him, on ac- 
count of his trangressions, into the privileges of a citizen of 
heaven ; for " God " (he continues) " who is rich in mercy, 
for his great love wherewith he loved us, hath quickened us 
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) and hath raised 
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus." Whereupon follows — not is contained in, the 
image, but follows upon it, as the practical application to duty, 
of the spiritual Idea of privilege — a similar admonition to 
that to the Romans, that they are to look upon themselves as 
thus " God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus," raised 
up with him to a new and heavenly state of being, in a new 
region, " in order to the doing of those good works,'' which cor- 
respond to such a state. Eph. ii. 1 — 10. 

And so again, the same Idea is conveyed, by the same 
Apostle to the Colossians ; when he reminds them that 
having been buried with Christ in baptism, they are " also 
risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God who 
raised him from the dead," (through their faith in Christ's 
Resurrection as a symbol of their own exaltation with him) 
and are " quickened together with him, having all their tres- 
passes forgiven them ;" and consequently are to look upon 
themselves as " dead to the rudiments of this world ;" no 
longer living in this mere rudimental, imperfect state of being, 
here below ; and to set their alFection on those things which 
belong to the heavenly and perfect world into which they 
are raised with Christ ; and in which their true life, even 



182 THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

as that of their ascended Master, is now hidden, with the 
unseen God. Whereupon follows, as before, the practical 
admonition which such an Idea includes in it, " Mortify, 
therefore., your members which are still on earth;" reduce what 
still is earthly in your nature into accordance with that spi- 
ritual Idea ; complete in the flesh that death of the old man 
by which you may realize in fact what you are constituted in 
idea, " new creatures in Christ Jesus ! " 

Nor is this important view of the Christian's connection 
with the death and resurrection of his Lord less earnestly 
pressed by the Apostle Peter ; who in so many points exhibits 
to us the same mode of thinking, and even speaking-, with St. 
Paul. For, in his first epistle, after he has reminded his 
readers (ch. iii. 18) how " Christ had once suffered for sins, 
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit," 
(even as St. Paul does the Romans^ ch. vi. 1 ; ) and has more- 
over referred to their baptism as bearing in it a confession and 
symbol of the resurrection of Jesus Christ ; (even as St. Paul 
does in the similar passage, Rom. vi. 3 — 5) he goes on to ex- 
hort them, (ch. iv. 1,2) " Forasmuch then as Christ hath suf- 
fered for us in the flesh," (was " put to death," so far as re- 
gards his earthly nature, — " all of him that could die") — 
" arm yourselves likewise with the same mind," be animated 
to contend with evil by the grand idea of your connexion with 
this death and subsequent resurrection;* '' for he that hath 
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." Death cuts off all 
communication and commerce with the evil which is in the 
world, and in a corporeal nature ; and therefore in proportion 

* Let the image, or idea (swo/a) of your participation in such a glorious 
transference from a world of sin to that of holiness, elevate, and strengthen 
you for your conflict with the flesh. " De mortificatione carnis hie potius agi 
quam de patientia sub cruce docent sequentia." — Gerhard. " Think it 
ought to be thus, and seek that it may be thus, with you." — Abp. Leighton. 



THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 183 

as you look upon yourselves as if dead with Christ, and risen 
with him into a new sphere of things, " you will live the rest 
of your time, even while yet remaining in the body, no longer 
to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." Compare the 
exactly similar train of thought and phraseology of Paul, Rom. 
vi. 5— -7. " If we have been planted together in the likeness 
of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrec- 
tion ; knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, 
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we 
should not serve sin ; for he that is dead is freed from sin." To 
have risen with Christ, is, in idea, to have escaped away from 
the burden and pollution of the flesh, and from the atmosphere 
of the world, and to have winged our way into the liberty and 
purity of the heavenly regions; there to live no longer to 
sense and earth, but to the will of God, in whose bright pre- 
sence we stand. 

Such then is the spiritual Idea, of which the Resurrection 
of Christ is a symbol. That great Fact shadows out our 
transference with him into a new life ; i. e. a new state and 
sphere of being ; our becoming colonized in a new world. 
Does this, peradventure, appear to any one a truth too ideal ? 
approaching to the mystical ? It is a truth not the less scrip- 
tural ; nay, without our entering into which we cannot under- 
stand the very groundwork of the various epistles of St. Paul 
to the churches. For all those letters go on the supposition 
that he is addressing men who by their profession, as baptized 
into Christ, have agreed to recognize themselves, and the 
Christian brotherhood to which they belong, as no longer of 
the world, though in the world — as setting their regards on 
different objects, affected by different feelings, acting on dif- 
ferent motives, breathing a different atmosphere, from those 
who, according to the Apostolic phrase, are still " in the 
flesh." This is the Idea which lies at the very root of Chris- 



184 THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

tianity and constitutes its life. Without it we may be mo- 
ralists, but we sball never be spirituallj^ minded. We may be 
more correct, more cautious, more refined in degree than the 
herd of worldlings ; but we shall never be diflPerent from them 
in hind. We may be more decent., but we shall not be other 
men. For it is the Idea of Regeneration, or birth into a new 
sphere of being. It is that which was dimly felt, though 
alas not looked at in the clear dry light of reason and of truth, 
by the fervent men of olden times ; who, disappointed and 
disgusted with the Christian world around them, and feeling 
that the Gospel of Jesus had missed of its significanc}^, went 
out, first as hermits, then as monks, to seek for themselves, 
amidst the solitudes of the wilderness, or in the secluded 
brotherhood of contemplative minds, if they could realize the 
transcendental truth of being citizens of heaven, — of leading 
an angelic life — of living only in the presence of God.* This, 
I say, is what they dimly felt that " rising again with Christ " 
required, though this, endeavouring after by the force of out- 
ward separations, mechanical rules^ and corporeal austerities, 
they so grievously missed. For this can truly be made actual 

* " Cum, post Apostolomm excessum tepescere coepisset credeniiiim mul- 
titudo, — hi, autem, quibiis adhuc Apostolicus inerat fervor, memores illius 
pristinae perfectionis, ea quae ab Apostolis meminerant inslituta, — exercere 
coeperunt." Cassian (in Giesler, CI. Hist.) Whence the monks were said 
" to live an apostolic life " — {^ XvoffroXiKov Siov Stovv). And their mode of 
living was called " the angelical life ;" (ayytXtxh '^ixyujyi' o rav uyyiXuv Sio;), 
and " the heavenly polity ;" (ra oh^avnx, <ToXirivfji,ot,Tex.).^ with manifest reference 
to Phil. iii. 20 ; " our conversation is in heaven." (^^^Jv to -rokirsvfia h 
ou^ccvoT? u-rd^Xii.) And the taking monastic vows is called by Jerome, with 
evident allusion to the ideal transference into a new world, of which baptism 
is the symbol, " the bathing oneself in, as it were, a second baptism of ifite?i- 
tio7i ;" or in other Avords, the devoting ourselves to realize o^x£ baptismal cha- 
racter — " secundo quodammodo propositi se baptismo lavare." — Ibid. And 
an old glossary interprets the title islovaxos by o f^'ovM ^Zv &sm. Riddle, Christ. 
Antiq. 743. 



THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 185 

in the Christian only in the same spiritual and moral way in 
which it was made actual in his Lord when he resided upon 
earth; by the regulation, namely, of the inward will — the 
soaring upward of the heavenly temper — the unworldliness of 
the practical principles of action — the rejection from the mind 
and heart Qi Xh^ devil's three grand tempters, the lust of the 
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life — the realizing, 
in a word, our Saviour's parting prayer for his disciples — 
" Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, 
and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name 
those whom thou hast given me. I have given them thy word, 
and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the 
world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou 
shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep 
them from the evil. They are not of the world even as" (in like 
manner as, after the same idea) — " I am not of the world !" 
John xvii. 11 — 14. O that from our own experience we may 
find that there is truly nothing mystical, but rather eminently 
practical, in this grand Idea of the Christian as a man of ano- 
ther system ; who in his tastes, his views, his habits, his enjoy- 
ments^ his hopes, is as different from those around him as light 
from darkness ! " If any man be in Christ he is a new crea- 
ture ; old things are passed away ; behold, all things are be- 
come new I" 2 Cor. v. 17. 

But now let us look at the practical significancy of the 
Resurrection of Christ as regards the moral influence which 
the consideration of it brings to bear upon our faith, our 
energy, and our patience. 

Observe its bearing on our Faith. How needful was this 
great Fact in order to establish our trust in God, and in the 
work of our salvation through his Son. All the facts of the 
Creed have indeed this bearing. They all furnish, as symbo- 



186 THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURKECTION. 

lical representations of great leading truths, so also practical 
answers to pressing questions with regard to our salvation. 
Do we ask, in the first workings of an anxious sense of our 
delinquency and danger, How can I be saved? The very 
Titles of Christy as given in our Creed, reply. By the work of 
one who is at once your Friend, your King, your Lord, your 
God ; in short, by a divine interposition I And do you go on 
to enquire How can this divine interposition take place ? The 
Incarnation of Christ declares to you. By God's own Son de- 
scending for you into your humanity I Or further, How can 
this divine interposition work towards the deliverance I need ? 
The Death of Christ proclaims to you. By the substitution of 
this Son of God made Son of man, in your place and stead ! 
And then, if with the trembhng eagerness of one who catches 
a glimpse of rescue when all seemed ruin — of life when all 
seemed death — afraid to believe too hastily what, if true, is 
joy and triumph, you go on to inquire. But then, how shall I 
know this? What shall warrant to me this blessed hope? 
Who shall assure me that such a substitution of such a Divine 
Friend is according to God's will, and shall work for me God's 
end ? Then comes the crowning Fact of the Resurt-ection of 
Christ, plainly showing you that God himself has honoured the 
sacrifice, has accepted the Victim, has proclaimed himself well 
pleased with the offering. As the Death of Christ is, in rela- 
tion to the ancient sacrifices of the Jewish law ; so is the 
Resurrection of Christ, in relation to the testimony which 
God gave, under that law, to his acceptance of those sacrifices. 
Turn to the ninth chapter of the book of Leviticus, 22 — 24, 
and you will find that when Aaron had offered a sin-offering 
for the people, then " there came a fire out from before the 
Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering ; which 
when the people saw they shouted and fell upon their faces." 
Where, you see, it was not enough for God to have appointed 



THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 187 

those sacrifices ; to have called them by the name of sin-offer- 
ings, or propitiatory offerings ; and thus to have intimated to 
the people that they were intended as means of their recon- 
ciliation with him ; but over and above all this, he conde- 
scends to give them a practical manifestation, a sensible proofs 
that all had been done as he wished ; that he was satisfied ; 
that he " remembered all their offerings, and accepted their 
burnt sacrifice ;" — " which when all the people saw they shouted, 
and fell on their faces !" And just similar is the case of 
Manoah (Judges vi. 21). When, by the command of the 
angel, he had offered his burnt-offering to the Lord, then " the 
angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on; 
for it came to pass when the flame went up towards heaven 
from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the 
flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it and 
fell on their face to the ground." And so to Gideon — and to 
Elijah — and to Solomon — ^when they had made their respec- 
tive sacrifices to the Lord, in each case there was given a sign 
from heaven in token of God's acceptance of the offering, and 
to confirm their faith in him. 

Even so, is the Resurrection of Christ for the confirming of 
your faith towards God. " He raised him from the dead" says 
Peter, " and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might he 
in Godr 1 Peter i. 21. "If Christ be not raised" says St, 
Paul " your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins." 1 Cor. 
XV. 17. " He was delivered for our offences, but he was raised 
again for our justification." Rom. iv. 24. And would you 
then assure yourself that God lays nothing to the charge of 
his elect ? that he has justified, and no one thenceforth may 
condemn ? you may exclaim, in the triumphant language of 
the same Apostle, " It is Christ that died, yea rather that is 
risen again ; who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us I" Rom. viii. 34. 



188 THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTIOiN". 

And see then what a bearing this fact has, in the second 
place, on the Christian's Energy, In every case our energy 
will be as our faith. The vigour of our will will be as the 
vividness of our conviction. It is thus that faith works mira- 
cles. " Only believe," said Jesus, " and all things are possible 
to him that believeth." What then will be the energy of him 
who is well assured that he is trusting in, and serving, a risen 
Saviour ? You see, by facts, what will be that energy ; when 
you compare the temper of the Apostles before and after this 
glorious event ; when you look at their behaviour on the day of 
Pentecost ; and see those very men, to whom their Lord had 
formerly said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long 
shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you ! standing up 
before the countless multitude, and with modest daring telling 
them that " This Jesus God hath raised up, whereof we all 
are witnesses. Therefore let all the house of Israel know 
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have 
crucified, both Lord and Christ !" 

And how does St. Paul endeavour to stimulate the languid 
energies of his disciple Timothy? Just by this very same 
topic. " God" he had said to him, " hath not given us the 
spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound, (or 
vigorous) mind ;" and to stir up this spirit, and bring it into 
action, his main argument is this — " Remember, that Jesus 
Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead^ accord- 
ing to my gospel. And it is a faithful saying, If we be dead 
with him we shall also live with him ; if we suffer we shall also 
reign with him!" 2 Tim. ii. 8 — 11. O to be roused up to a 
life of active righteousness, by this inspiring topic ! Would 
you have lofty aspio-ations, and desires which pierce the clouds ? 
Meditate on your Saviour's Resurrection. " If ye be risen 
with Christ seek those things which are above I" Col. iii. 1. 
And would you have heavenly tempers, and habitual communion 



THE SIGNIFICANCY OP THE RESURRECTION. 189 

with things unseen ? Consider, again, your Saviour's Resur- 
rection. " Our conversation" says St. Paul, " is in heaven ; 
from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus 
Christ." Phil. iii. 20. And would you have hold and deter- 
mined purposes^ Look again, to your Saviour's Resurrection. 
" Yea doubtless" says the same Apostle, " I count all things 
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
my Lord ; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and 
do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found 
in him; that I may know him, and the power of his Resurrec- 
tion, being made conformable even to his death, if by any 
means I might attain unto the resurrectioii of the dead !" 
Phil. iii. 8—11. 

But see, once more, the bearing of this Fact, not only on 
our Faith, and Energy, but on our Patience — our persevering 
service of God in all obedience, through every obstacle, not- 
withstanding every temptation, even to the end. Christ's 
history is the type and pledge of what shall be the history of 
every one who is faithful to him. It may begin in humilia- 
tion; — it may go on through pain, and sorrow, and self-sacri- 
fice; — but it shall be consummated in triumph! No one can 
follow Jesus along his path of suffering and self-denial, who 
shall not rise with Jesus to his throne of glory ! " For, whom 
God did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to 
the image of his Son" — i. e. to the glorified condition to which 
he was raised up — " that he might be the first-born among 
many brethren" — that he might share his triumph with that 
whole family which he came to save ; and might present him- 
self before the Father, saying. Behold I, and the children 
whom thou hast given me ! Here then is the patience of the 
saints. Hence we may be assured that all things are working 
together for good to those who love God. As surely as all 
the trials of Christ's earthly course — the temptations of the 



190 THE SIGNIFICANCY OF THE RESURRECTION. 

devil, the taunts of the Pharisees, the weaknesses of the dis- 
ciples, the changeableness of the multitude, the treachery of 
Judas, the injustice of Pilate, the cruelty of the High Priests, 
the agonies of Gethsemane, and the bitterness of Calvary — as 
surely as all these were but the appointed stepping-stones by 
which the Son of David was to mount up to his Father's 
throne; so surely, with the Christian, will tribulation work 
patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, until, 
through similar trial — and similar perseverance — he mount up 
at last to a similar triumph. " If any man serve me," says 
our great Forerunner, " let him follow me ; and where I a7n 
there shall also my servant he!'' John xii. 26. "To him that 
overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne ; even as 
I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his 
throne! " Rev. iii. 21. 



191 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 

In going through the main facts of our Saviour's history, as 
they are commemorated in the Apostles' Creed, we have now 
considered his Incarnation — his Death — his Resurrection. 

The next subject set before us is His Exaltation. " He 

ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, AND SITTETH ON THE RIGHT HAND OF 

God, THE Father Almighty." 

Now, THE Fact here commemorated will not require many 
words. 

I would only remind you, first, that it had been already dis- 
tinctly predicted by our blessed Lord, before his crucifixion. 
The Ascension of Christ was no unlooked-for, chance occur- 
rence. It was part of that series of events which had been 
ordered beforehand, in the purposes of God, for our salvation. 
And therefore, he who came from God to work out that salva- 
tion, saw in advance, and foretold to his disciples, as his 
Resurrection from the dead, so also his passing onward, after 
that Resurrection, from earth to heaven — his return to God 
who sent him. So early as his conversation at Capernaum, 
recorded in the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel, when men 
were marvelling at his declaration. Except ye eat the flesh of 
the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you ; 
Jesus, in order to show that his words must necessarily be 
interpreted, in a figurative sense, of feeding on the doctrine of 



192 THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 

his flesh sacrificed for man, had said; " Doth this offend you? 
What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he 
was before ? " John vi. 61, 62. And as the time of his depar- 
ture drew near he consoled his troubled disciples with the 
clear assurance, " In my Father's house are many mansions. 
/ go to prepare a place for you.'' John xiv. 2. For which 
consummation of his work he pleads, in his parting prayer 
with his Apostles. " I have glorified thee on the earth, I 
have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And 
now O Father, glorify thou me with thine ow7i self with the 
glory which I had with thee before the world was." John xvii. 
5. How touching are these aspirations of Jesus towards that 
heavenly home which he had left for ungrateful man ! How 
eagerly, as he draws near the goal, his spirit yearns for rescue 
from this guilty sphere, to find its resting place in the bosom 
of the Father. " Now I am no more in the world ! I come to 
Thee ! " 

But observe, next, how, as Jesus had predicted, things took 
place. The Fact of his Ascension is witnessed to us by his 
followers. It was not in secret that he left the earth. He 
did not steal away from those around him, leaving them to be 
convinced of no more than the fact that he was gone ! His 
departure was not involved in the mystery which attended the 
removal of Moses, who " went up from the plains of Moab 
unto the mountain of Nebo — and Moses, the servant of the 
Lord, died there, in the land of Moab — but no man knoweth 
of his sepulchre unto this day." Deut. xxxiv. 1, 5, 6. But, 
in the presence of his Apostles, — not one nor two, but all the 
assembled company ; before their eyes ; exposed to their pro- 
longed and steady observation ; " when he had spoken these 
things," (says St. Luke) ^^ while they beheld" while still their 
eyes were fixed upon him, so that there could be no mistake, 
" he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their 



THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 193 

sight." Acts i. 9. " So then" (says St. Mark), " after the 
Lord had spoken unto them^ he was received up into heaven, 
and sat on the right hand of God." Mark xvi. 19. 

Yet, even here, as in the miracle of the resurrection, the 
testimony of eye-witnesses is confirmed by that of subsequent 
circumstances — circumstances over which they could have no 
control — which they could not invent — which none can be 
mistaken about. The Ascension of Jesus into heaven, his sit- 
ting there on the right hand of God, — i. e. his possession of his 
Father s power ^ is manifested by the gifts of the Holy Ghost, 
which he thence showered down. To this confirmation of his 
personal testimony St. Peter makes appeal before the multi- 
tudes, on the day of Pentecost, who had run together to be- 
hold, and wonder at, these gifts. " This Jesus," he tells them, 
" God hath raised up. Therefore, being by the right hand of 
God " (or rather, to the right hand of God*^ " exalted, and 
having received of the Father, the promised Holy Ghost, He 
hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. For David 
is not ascended into the heavens^ but he saith himself, The 
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until 
I make thy foes thy footstool." Acts ii. 32-^35. And so, 
again, both Peter and the other Apostles argue with the 
Council : " The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye 
slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with" (or 
rather to) "his right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, 
to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we 
are his witnesses of these things ; and so also is the Holy 
Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him,"' Acts v. 
30 32. Thus you have the predictions of Jesus before the 

* See V. 34 : " Sit thou on my right hand." The words are tjj ^e^/S tou 
hoZ u-^uh)?. And " after words of sending, conducting, going and coming, the 
dative is often used instead of ?rg«j or e/j." Winer : Gr. des N. T. Sprach- 
idioms. See also MAXxHiiE, Gk. Gr. § 401, 3. 

K 



194 THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 

fact — the ocular evidence of the Apostles, who had been pre- 
sent during the fact — and the testimony of the Holy Ghost, 
after the fact ; — all conspiring to prove to you, that " He 
ascended into heaven and sat on the right hand of God, the 
Father Almighty." 

Now then let us pass on, in the second place, to the Doc- 
trine of the Exaltation of Christ — what we are taught, in 
the inspired word, concerning the Meaning of that Fact; its 
place in the work of our salvation, and its bearing on our 
spiritual welfare. 

To understand which, we must remind ourselves how the 
whole work of Christ's interposition for the saving of the 
world is set forth in the Bible under the image of a priestly 
mediatioyi. Just that whole office which God committed to 
Aaron and the Jewish priesthood, to be exercised for his 
people Israel ; has been committed to the One Great Priest, 
of whom those, all, were only types ; to be exercised for a 
guilty world. " We," says the Apostle, " have a great High 
Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of 
God." Heb. iv. 14. But if you look into that office of the 
Jewish priesthood, and especially that highest and most so- 
lemn part of it which was executed by the high priest only, 
once a year, when he made atonement for the sins of the 
people, you will perceive that it consists of three distinct stages 
of mediation. There is, first, the slaying of the sacrifice, upon 
the altar. Levit. xvi. 11. There is secondly, the taking of 
the blood of that sacrifice and bringing it within the vail of the 
Holy of Holies, and sprinkling it upon the mercy seat, and be- 
fore the mercy seat. Levit xvi. 15. And then, thirdly, there 
is the coming forth again, from before the Lord into the pre- 
sence of the people, and blessing them in the name of the Lord. 
Numb. vi. 23 — 26. Deut. xxi. 5. 



THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 



195 



Now, if you study the Epistle to the Hebrews, (especially 
the ninth chapter) you will find that just in these respects, 
and just in comparison with these three stages of the priestly 
mediation, is Jesus represented as having effected for the soul 
and conscience, what the Levitical priesthood accomplished 
only for the purifying of the flesh. First, he made for us a 
sacrifice of propitiation^ when he gave himself upon the cross ; 
the functions of priest and victim being in him united ; that 
which was heavenly in him, and divine, slaying for us all that 
was capable of suffering and death. Then, secondly, he 
passed on with the blood of his sacrifice into the holy of holies, 
the presence of God, there to offer it before the mercy seat, 
the throne of the Most High ; when, being raised from the 
dead, he ascended up, through the clouds, into the heaven of 
heavens, " there to appear in the presence of God for us." 
And, thirdly, we are taught by the Apostle to look for his ful- 
filment of the final function of the priestly office when he shall 
come forth from the presence of the Father, to lift up the light of 
his countenance on a waiting world, and to bless it in the name 
of the Lord. " Christ " says St. Paul, " was once offered to 
bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him,' 
(where there is a manifest allusion to the posture of mind of 
the people, looking out for the re-appearance of the High 
Priest from the Holy of Holies, to close all with the benedic- 
tion from the Lord) — " to them who thus are looking for him, 
he shall appear the second time, without sin unto salvation :" 
not again as a victim, to bear our sins ; but as the Proclaimer 
of accepted and completed mediation to cheer into triumphant 
gladness a regenerated world. 

It is then the Second of these functions — Christ's living 
presence for us as our great High Priest before the mercy- 
seat, — which is fulfilled by His Ascension into heaven and 
sitting on the right hand of God. In the court of the temple, 

K 2 



196 THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 

as it were, upon this earth, and on the altar of the cross, he 
sacrificed himself, a victim for our sins. But then, he rose 
again from the dead, and passed on into the holy of holies, 
the inner shrine, there to sprinkle for us his blood, and plead 
our cause. See how expressly St. Paul states this, in Hebrews 
ix. 11 — 14: "Christ being come, an High Priest of good 
things to come," (i. e. of blessings of which those Levitical 
ones were only anticipative, — good things which were to fol- 
low after them, as the reality, of which they were the pro- 
mise,) "by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made 
with hands, that is to say, not of this building " (passing, i. e. 
into the heavenly temple, of which that material one was but 
the type ; and this too) " not with the blood of goats and 
calves," (like those Levitical priests,) " but with his own 
blood ; he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained 
eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of 
goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanc- 
tifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the 
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit " {i. e. in virtue 
of that divine nature through which, as St. Peter says, though 
put to death in flesh he was made alive again in spirit*) 

* ^tx vnvfjt.a.ro; ximviov' in liis eternal Spirit, — as possessing, — because en- 
dowed with — an eternal spirit. (Comp. Rom. ii. 27; where " hi/ (hx) the letter 
and circumcision" is equivalent to " persons being in possession of the law, 
and circumcised." Rom. iv. 11;" That he might be the father of all them that 
believe, thougJi not circumcised " (^/' an^aSva-Ttasi in a state of uncircumcision). 
2 Cor, iii. 11; "For if that which was done away was glorious, (ha. Vo^nsy 
possessed of glory) much more that which remaineth is glorious." (Iv lol'/,' 
where ha. and b are interchanged : even as ha. •rvivfji.aro?, here, is equivalent 
to Tcu <7rnvfA.a.Ti and b 2 (sc. •ffvivfjt.a.ri) in 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19). See Fritzche on 
Rom. ii. 27 *'A)a h. I. conditionem, in qua locatus aliquid facias, indicat ; et 
idem valet ff\ rov %ta, y^a.fji./jt.a.roi xat Ti^iTofjiYti quod ffi rov to ygafjLfAO. xa.) rnv 
^s^ireuhv 'ixo-*'ra.. Cf. Xen. Cyrop. 4. 6. 6. tvn ha,x.iif4,ai 'i^^f^os uv kcu ^tk 
^iv^oui TO yn^us hayuv.) By virtue of that divine nature, which enabled him 
not only to offer up his body, for an instant, on the altar of the cross, but to 



THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 



197 



« offered himself, without spot, to God " — (presented his as- 
cended person a pure and perfect offering before the mercy- 
seat in heaven, — how much more shall the sprinkling by such a 
Priest, of the blood of such a victim, in the heavenly sanc- 
tuary), " purge your conscience from dead works to serve the 
living God." '^ For Christ" the Apostle says again, v. 24, " is 
not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are 
but the figures of the true, hut into heaven itself^ now to ap- 
pear in the presence of God for usJ"* 

Here then is the great truth which the Article of our Creed 

go on with the sacrifice into the presence of God (as the high priest took the 
blood of the victim into the Holy of Holies) and there present it continually 
as a never-ceasing offering to the Father. An animal might be once slain, and 
once offered : Christ by his never-dying nature is able to present himself eter- 
nally before the Father in our behalf. " This man, because loe continuetli ever, 
Qia, TO fAiviiv alrov I'tg rov u'luva) hath an unchangeable priesthood. Where- 
fore he is able also to save them to the uttermost^'''' (or evermore lU ro ^avrtXh) 
seeing he ever livetli to make intercession for them." Heb. vii. 24, 25. " If 
any man sin, we have an Advocate, with the Father," (who is in the presence 
of the Father, t^os tov -mri^a) " Jesus Christ the righteous ; and he is the 
propitiation for our sins." 1 John ii. 1,2. So Theophylact says, Ov;^; a,^- 
X'^^ivs Tis <^^otnnyx,t tov X^kttov akX' avTo; lavTov' x,ai ou ^la -ffvgo? (not with 
an offering of fire, whose flame should " go up toward heaven from off the 
altar," Judg. xiii. 20^ ms ol 'ha.^u.Xiii^ uXXcx, "Bia, "pfvivfjcaTo? aiuviov (with 
the offering of his eternal Spirit, going up itself toward heaven) utrTz siou t'/iv 
;^a^<v zeci tyiv ot-ToXuT^eairiv ^laiojvi^nv. "No ministering priest offered up 
the Christ, but he himseK offered up himself ; and that too not by destroying 
himself with fire, as the heifers are consumed ; but by ascending with his in- 
destructible spirit, that he might thus by its eternity eternize the grace and 
the redemption which he has obtained for us." 

* Compare Heb. viii. 1. *' We have such an High Priest wlio is set on ihe 
right hand of the throne of th^ Majesty in the Jieavens ; a minister of tJie true 
tabernacle " (i. e. the Iveavenly one which was the ideal and pattern of that 
earthly one of Moses, v. 5.) " which the Lord pitched, and not man." And 
also ch. vii. 25. " He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God 
by him " (that use him for their mediating priest in their approaches to God) 
" seeing he ever livetli " (in the heavenly sanctuary) " to make intercession for 
them " before the face of God. 



198 THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 

now before us, would remind us of. Christ as our Intercessor 
with God, before his throne in heaven — an Intercessor all 
gracious and compassionate — all-sufficient for our constantly 
recurring needs — all-powerful to afford us patronage and help. 

How blessed is the view of the ascended Jesus as an Inter- 
cessor all-gracious and compassionate I See how St. Paul in- 
sists on this. " Seeing that we have a great High Priest that 
is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold 
fast our profession. For we have not an high priest who cannot 
he touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all 
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us there- 
fore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain 
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. iv. 14 — 
16. How gracious is this condescension to our infirmities! 
Our Intercessor, one with ourselves; partaker of the same 
nature ; who has gone through the same trials ; who has 
fought the same fight I "Every high priest on earth," says 
the Apostle, " ordained for men, is taken from among men" 
(with all the sympathies, therefore, of his kind, about him) 
" who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that 
are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with 
infirmity." Heb. v. 1, 2. And behold our Intercessor in hea- 
ven ! He likewise is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ; 
— though divine yet also human ; though pure and spotless as 
regards all sin yet capable of compassionating sinners ; and 
bearing into the heaven of heavens the same pitying tenderness 
which prompted him to say on earth to the woman that had 
been a sinner, "Thy sins are forgiven thee I" and to the 
shrinking sufferer, who durst scarcely touch the hem of 
his garment, and " came trembling and falling down before 
him," " Daughter be of good comfort, thy faith hath made 
thee whole I " See therefore how you may bring, not only 



THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 199 

your sorrows but your sins to this compassionate High Priest, 
to get them blotted out by his blood. We are too much in- 
clined to approach God only in those moments when, in one 
sense, we are least in need of God. We draw near to him 
when the mind is clear, the heart devout ; when, in a word, 
we are spiritually well: but we hide ourselves from him when 
we are dull, and heavy, and desponding ; in a word, when we 
are spiritually ill ; and therefore are most pressingly in need 
of help. We are like the self-loathing lepers who kept afar 
off; but we are not like them in crying out, even from our dis- 
tance, " Jesus, Master, have mercy on us I " But the great 
truth of Christ's Intercession is specially designed to meet this 
very state of mind ; to encourage us to bring our very declen- 
sions, defilements, short-comings, to our compassionate Re- 
deemer ; and to plead with him against the very sin that 
cleaves to us, to ask from him the very holiness of which we 
are destitute.* 

* " Wouldst thou have much power against sin, and much increase of holi- 
ness, let thine eye be much on Christ ; set thine heart on him ; let it dwell 
in him, and be still with him. When sin is like to prevail in any kind, go to 
him, tell him of the wsurrection of his ene^nies, and thy inability to resist, and 
desire him to suppress them, and to help thee against them, that they may 
gain nothing by their stirring but some new wound. If thy heart begin to be 
taken with, and move towards sin, lay it before Mm ; the beams of his love 
shall eat out that fire of these sinfal lusts. Wouldst thou have thy pride, and 
passions, and love of the world, and self-love, killed ; go sue for the virtue of 
his death," [and the power of his intercession] " and that shall do it ; seek 
his Spirit, the spirit of meekness, and humility, and divine love. Look on 
him, and he shall draw thy heart heavenwards, and unite it to himself, and 
make it like himself. And is not this the thing that thou desirest ? " 
Abp. Leighton, on 1 Pet. iv. 1. "There is no standing out against sin 
without some firm ground to stand on : and this Faith alone supplies. By 
faith in the love of Christ the power of God becomes ours. When the soul is 
beleagured by enemies ; weakness on the walls, treachery at the gates, and 
corruption in the citadel ; then by faith she says — Lamb of God, slain from 
the foundation of the world, thou art my strength ! / look to tlvee for deliver, 
ance ! And thus she overcomes." Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, 305. 



200 



THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 



For, why does man need a priest at all ? Because he feels 
that God is awfully holy, while himself is full of sin. Adam, 
in his innocence, needed no priest. The divine wisdom re- 
joiced in him, and he talked with God. But directly that he 
sinned, the voice of the Lord struck terror into him, and he 
hid himself from the face of the Lord amidst the trees of the 
garden. And thenceforth it is only the doctrine of a divine 
Intercessor, which can soothe the misgivings of the troubled 
conscience. " If any man sin," says the Apostle John, " we 
have an Advocate," an Intercessor, " with the Father," stand- 
ing before his throne, in his immediate presence, " Jesus 
Christ, the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins." 
1 John ii. 1. Here then is the provision for the daily infirmi- 
ties of the believer.) even as the sacrifice on the cross is the 
provision for the whole amount of past transgressions of the re- 
penting convert. It is not merely that Christ has died for us, 
for the remission of sins that are past ; but he, moreover, ever 
livethfor us, to maintain, keep up, renew from hour to hour, 
as we need it, our acceptance, through each successive present. 
And if the anxious Christian realized this truth more, he 
would not so frequently dishonour his profession ; and wound 
his soul ; and cut the very sinews of a robust and vigorous 
obedience ; by a mistrusting, querulous spirit ; always fluctu- 
ating between hope and fear, the sense of pardon and the 
sense of guilt. Many a one who has looked much and often 
at Jesus on the cross, has not yet learned to look so steadily at 
Jesus on the right hand of God. The doctrine of Atonement 
has delivered him from ruin, but the doctrine of Intercession 
has not delivered him from wretchedness. And yet what a 
word that is, which the Apostle uses in connexion with this 
subject ! — " Boldness ! "* " Let us come boldly to the throne 

* Msra Tappyiffiai. See 2 Cor. yii. 4. "Great is my boldness of speech 
(5rap^»<r/«) towards you." John vii. 13. " No man spake openly {Trocppviffief) 



THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 201 

of grace" — not in gloomy silence— not with faltering accents — 
not with a fearful keeping down and smothering of the mani- 
fold feelings of the tempted mind — but with the whole heart, 
in entire openness, pouring forth its various emotions ; even as 
a child into the bosom of its parent ; with the tear, indeed, 
bedewing its burning cheek, but with the beam of filial confi- 
dence sparkling in its uplifted eye. " Having therefore bold- 
ness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new 
and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the 
vail ; and having an high priest over the house of God, let us 
draw near with a true heart, in /ull assurance of faith, having 
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience T' Heb. x. 19 — 

But let the believer look to his ascended Lord, in the se- 
cond place, as an Intercessor all-sufficient for his constantfy 
recurring needs* It is as setting before us an High Priest 
who does not ofi"er for us, once and again, a sacrifice, and then 
leave us to ourselves ; but who affords us the continuous exer- 
cise of his mediation, that the doctrine of the Exaltation of 
Christ, and his living in heaven, is so earnestly pressed upon 
us by St. Paul. " They truly were many priests, because they 
were not suffered to continue, by reason of death, but this man, 
because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost' 
(through each vicissitude of life on to the very end) "who 
come unto God by hira ; seeing he ever liveth to make inter- 
cession for them." Heb. vii. 23 — 25. Christ, as your ever 
faithful, ever ready, friend, — always to be come at, always at 

of \i\m., for fear of the Jews." Acts ii. 29. " Let me freely ((£«£t« '^app'/ia-tas) 
speak unto you." The Christian is encouraged to fulfil the exhortation of the 
Psalmist, (Ixii. 8) " Trust in him at all times ; — pour out your liearts before 
him. God is a refuge for us." 

k5 



202 THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 

hand to interpose for you, always carrying on your cause, — is 
the object set before you in this great Article of our Creed. 
Just then^ when your inward necessities are most pressing, 
recollect the fulness which is laid up for you in Christ ; and 
go and ask and you shall have, and seek and you shall find, 
and knock and it shall be opened to you. " When he as- 
cended up on high, he led captivity captive, and received gifts 
for men."" Eph. iv. 8. And just then, too, when things seem 
most to fail without you — when you are in the greatest straits 
and difficulties— then re-assure your fainting spirit by the 
thought — -Now especially does He step forth in my behalf I 
Now does he renew his interposition I Now I may leave all to 
his care I So did St. Stephen, when, at the very crisis of his 
fate ; the triumph of his enemies ; the sinking of his mortal 
flesh ; he " being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly 
into heaven^ and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the 
right hand of God.'' Acts vii. 55 y 5Q, And so St. Paul would 
have every Christian to believe, amidst the rushing floods of 
trouble ; when he reminds us, " Who is he that condemneth ? 
It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is 
even at the right hand of God, who also makefh intercession for 
us ! Who shall separate us from the love .of Christ ? Shall 
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or naked- 
ness, or peril, or sword ? Nay, in all these things we are more 
than conquerors through him that loved us I " Rom. viii. 34 
—37. 

" More than conquerors through him that loved us ! " For, 
forget not, that this doctrine of an ascended Saviour assures to 
us, lastly, an Intercessor, all-powerful to afford us patronage 
and help. He is not merely ascended into heaven ; " he sitteth 
on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty." At his 



THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 203 

right hand : — implying the honour put upon him ; the power 
committed to him. * 

For the right hand of the Sovereign is, as you know, the 
seat of highest honour and influence. " Bathsheba went unto 
King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king 
rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down 
on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mo- 
ther, and she sat on his right hand. Then she said, I desire 
one petition of thee ; and the king said unto her. Ask on, my 
mother, /or I will not sag thee nayT 1 Kings ii. 19, 20. Even 
so Jesus, when he entered into heaven with his petition for us, 
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, who will not 
say him nay ! 

Nor is such a figure less the image of power. " He is gone 
into heaven^ and is at the right hand of God, angels and autho- 
rities and powers being made subject unto him." 1 Peter iii. 22. 
" For this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for 
ever sat dow^n on thie right hand of God, from henceforth ex- 
pecting till his enemies be made his footstool.'" Heb. x. 12, 13. 
And this is the doctrine of that long argument of St. Paul in 



* For, to " sit at the right hand of a king" denotes the being raised, (1) to 
the participation of his honour; as was Bathsheba ; 1 Kings ii. 19 ; and the 
Bride of Solomon ; Ps. xlv. 9 ; and as the mother of James and John de- 
sired for her son, Matt. xx. 21. But (2) to the participation of his power ^ 
as is promised to the Messiah, Ps. ex. 1. "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 
thou at my right hand, until I mahe thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord 
shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion ; rule thou in the midst of thine 
enemies ;''"' and is declared at large of Jesus as that Messiah ; Eph. i. 20, 21. 
" God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the 
heavenly places,yar above all principality^ and power, a/nd might, and domi- 
nion.'''' So the superior gods are called by heathen writers the ffvn\oi, and 
ffvvd^ovot with Jupiter ; whence many Christian Fathers speak of Christ as 
ffuvih^oi and ffuv^^ovos rou toct^os. See Suicer, voc. a-vv^^. and Knapp, Opus- 
cula, i. 48—56. 



204 THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 

whicli he shows that our High Priest was to be not after the 
order of Aaron but of Melchizedek ; that is, of one both King 
and Priest — a priest of royal dignity and authority ^ made 
«' not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the 
power of an endless life.'' Heb. vii. O what a mighty Saviour, 
then, is ours I To whom " all power is given in heaven and 
earth !" Who is " head over all things for his body's sake, 
which is the church !" Nay, who is thus head over all things 
as himself part of that body, and raising up that body into 
power like his own. For it is as man, the representative of 
our humanity, that he triumphs in glory. As man he suffered 
for us ; that we might be considered as having suffered in him. 
As man he rose for us ; that we might look upon ourselves as 
risen with him. And as man he reigns for us ; that we may 
look forward to reign with him. " For one in a certain place 
testified," (writes St. Paul, Heb. ii. 6 — 9,) *°' saying. What is 
man that thou art mindful of him ? or the Son of man that 
thou visitest him ? Thou madest him a little lower than the 
angels ; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set 
him over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things in 
subjection under his feet" And yet, the Apostle adds, " we 
see not yet all things put under man" — that prophetic eulogy 
has not yet been accomplished in the race of men ; it must 
have therefore a deeper meaning ; it must refer to him who is 
the head of that race — the representative of man. And " we 
do see Jesus" the head and representative of man — The man 
— " who was made a little lower than the angels in order to 
the suffering of death" we do see him, in fulfilment of that 
prophetic hymn, " crowned with glory and honour /" And thus 
in this exaltation of the representative we have the pledge of 
the exaltation of the race I — In the fulfilment of that promised 
dignity to the Head of our kind, we have the assurance of its 
ultimate fulfilment to all the members of his body. Though 



THE EXALTATION OF CHKIST. 205 

man is made, for a little time, lower than the angels, he shall 
be crowned with glory and honour. There shall come a time 
when regenerated man shall tread all enemies under his feet : 
when sin shall have no more power over him : when earth 
and the things of sense shall all be subject to him : when, 
even as his ascended Lord, he shall be king as well as priest 
to God and his Father ! " They sang a new song, saying, Thou 
art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, 
for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood 
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and 
hast made us unto our God kings and priests : and we shall 
reign on the earth T' Rev. v. 9, 10. 



206 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

There is something very solemn in the thought that we are 
living in the midst of an undeveloped scheme of things — our 
own selves parts and portions of a history which has been unroll- 
ing from the first creation, but whose final chapters are still to 
come. We seem to partake of that awful pause in the mani- 
festations of God which is so sublimely symbolized in the 
Apocalypse, where it is said, " When he had opened the 
seventh seal there was silence in heaven about the space of 
half an hour:" — the angels gathering themselves together — 
preparing themselves to sound the trumpet of announcement — 
and the prayers of the saints ascending before the throne as if 
to urge the suit of sacred earnestness, " How long. Holy and 
true ? — How long ?" — And yet, a pause — a silence in heaven 
for half an hour I 

Such was the pause among the people who were praying 
without at the time of incense, when Zacharias had gone into 
the temple of the Lord ; and " they marvelled that he staid so 
long in the temple." Such was the pause of earnest expecta- 
tion with which the Israelites must have waited, on the day of 
atonement, for the coming out, from the awful Holy of Holies, 
of their high priest and representative, to pronounce over 
them the blessing of Jehovah. Such is the pause of the wait- 
ing church of Christ, which, having watched her ascending 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 207 

Lord into the heavens, now looks out for his appearing the 
second time, without sin, to her salvation. 

How intimately, then, is the subject of this chapter con- 
nected with that of the last. We considered there the Exalta- 
tion of Jesus into heaven, and his appearing there for us before 
the throne of God. We have now to throw forward our minds 
to His return from heaven to finish the work of a world's sal- 
vation. " From thence," says our Creed, " he shall come 

TO JUDGE THE QUICK AND THE DEAD." 

And here we shall have to consider, first, the Certainty of 
our Lord's coming again ; and secondly, the Purpose for 
which he will come. 

As to THE CERTAINTY OF THE COMING AGAIN OF ChRIST, 

this is based on the same foundation as that of all our belief 
in all his history. We are perhaps too much inclined to admit 
something like a distinction between the facts of History, and 
the facts of Prophecy ; between what is recorded as being past 
and done, and what is promised as yet to come. And we 
should be ready, even to change the very terms in which we 
speak of them ; calling the things past and recorded, matters 
of certainty ; the things promised and to come, matters of 
expectation only; almost conjecture. Now this distinction is 
perfectly correct concerning all human affairs not foretold to 
us by God. It is, in this case, of the past only that we can 
speak with certainty ; of the future we can only surmise, con- 
jecture, hope. But not so as regards the history of our Lord. 
Not so as regards any one of the particulars, which have been 
revealed to us, of his work of salvation, from its first begin- 
ning to its furthest end. For, what is the ground of our faith 
in the things that have taken place ? Just simply Testimony 
— the testimony of fully accredited witnesses, on their personal 
authority, that Jesus was born ; that Jesus was crucified ; that 



208 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

Jesus rose again ; that Jesus ascended into heaven. And 
what is the ground of our faith in the things which are yet to 
take place ? Just exactly this same testimony — the testimony 
of fully accredited witnesses, on their personal authority, that 
He, the same, who was bom, and was crucified, and rose again, 
and ascended into heaven, shall come again to judge both the 
quick and the dead. It is no conjecture, I say, of speculative 
minds ; it is no surmise of a natural sense of retribution ; it is 
no yearning of holy men for their Master's glory or the good 
of the world ; on which this doctrine rests. It is nothing less 
than an authoritative declaration, by men of God — in the name 
of God — that thus it shall be in the history of the world, be- 
cause thus it already is in the mind of God ; that thus it shall 
be seen in God's own time, because thus it is determined in 
God's own will. The second coming of Christ is as much a 
Fact as the first one. The sufficiency of the testimony to His 
future manifestation is as complete as is that of the testimony 
to his past one. And even as the prophets of old were so full 
of the reality of the things which they saw in vision, that their 
very grammar is afi'ected by it ; and they speak in the present 
tense, as before their eyes, of things which only in the course 
of ages were to come into being ; so may we also, transported 
by faith on to the very moment of Christ's actual re-appearing, 
adopt concerning it the language of St. John, and say, " I saw 
heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat 
upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness 
he doth judge and make war I" 

But it is not enough to refer to the testimony of fully ac- 
credited men of God, even the Apostles of Christ, to his com- 
ing again ; we have, moreover, the unqualified assertion of that 
great Being himself. While he was yet on earth, accomplish- 
ing the first part of his work, he spoke habitually, solemnly, 
unhesitatingly, of this its final completion. As the Baptist 



THE SECOND COMING OP CHRIST. 



209 



was the herald of Christ's first coming, so Jesus himself was 
the herald of his second coming. He spoke as his own pro- 
phet. He acted as his own forerunner. He declared his 
return, to his disciples, " The Son of man shall come in the 
glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward 
every man according to his works." Matt. xvi. 27. And he 
proclaimed it to his enemies, before the council. " Hereafter 
shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, 
and coming in the clouds of heaven." Matt. xxvi. 64. Now, 
in this, as in every other matter, you must give your full faith 
to Jesus, or you can give him none at all. There is no me- 
dium. You must accept him altogether, in the fulness of his 
claims, as to his Divine nature — his saving power — his final 
glory ; or he cannot be to you even a prophet, a teacher, nay 
nor a holy man I All that he is, and all that he has done, is the 
warrant and pledge of all that he has promised to be and to 
do. He told his disciples beforehand that He, though Mes- 
siah, (impossible to conceive I) should die by a malefactor's 
death ! And in three years he was crucified I He told them, 
yet further, that when thus crucified he should nevertheless 
(incredible to say ! ) rise again I And in three days he came 
forth from the tomb ! He told them, again, that when thus 
risen he should (hard to be imagined I ) ascend up where he 
was before I And after forty days, " while they beheld, he 
was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight ! " 
He told them, further, that there were some standing 
among them who should not taste of death till they saw him 
coming in that providential visitation of awful judgment which 
was to be the pledge as it was the partial pre-accomplishment, 
of his final coming in his kingdom I And in less than thirty 
years Jerusalem was destroyed I Now, in all the first cases, 
as he said so was it done. And shall not the last case be the 
same ? As he has said, shall it not be done ? Shall the 



210 THE SETCOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

difference of interval between the promise and the fulfilment 
make any difi'erence in the authority of the promise, and the 
certainty of the fulfilment ? You have given your answer to 
this question, every time you have said your Creed. You have 
declared, " I believe," — that " thence he shall come to 

JUDGE the quick AND THE DEAD ! " 

And after this testimony, therefore, we scarcely need that 
additional one, which still must not be left unnoticed, the as- 
surance of the angels to the assembled disciples, when their 
Lord had left them to ascend up into heaven. An assurance 
which can, indeed, add no certainty to the fact of Christ's re- 
turn, but which does add to it interest and awfulness ; by ex- 
pressly connecting that coming down from heaven with his 
going up into heaven ; and thereby teaching us to look for the 
second fact to be as real, as manifest, as plain, as was the first 
fact. " This same Jesus which is taken up from you into 
heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen him, go 
into heaven^ Acts i. 11. Was he taken up in figure? Did 
he pierce the clouds in metaphor ? Was his Ascent nothing 
but the exaltation of his truth ? The diffusion of his Spirit ? 
The triumph of his authority ? Then, (and then only) may 
we believe that his Descent will be nothing more. " Behold, 
he Cometh with clouds^ and every eye shall see him, and they 
also which pierced him; and all the kindreds of the earth 
shall wail because of him. Even so. Amen !" Rev. i. 7. 

But why will our blessed Lord descend from heaven once 
more ? For what purpose will he come again ? 

This is the second point declared to us in our Creed. 
" From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the 

DEAD." 

Where we must remember that the work of judgment— of 
judgment of all men, both " the quick," i. e, those who shall 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHEIST. 211 

be alive at Christ's coming-, and also " the dead," i. e, those 
who shall have passed into the unseen world before his coming 
— this work of judgment, or assigning to each man his eternal 
destiny, according to his character ; is ascribed in Scripture to 
our blessed Lord as an essential part of his kingly office ; whence 
the Nicene Creed adds to this clause, " and of his kingdom 
there shall be no end." We have seen before that even as our 
High Priest he is at the same time our King^ being " a priest 
for ever after the order of Melchizedek,'' who was, like all 
sovereigns of old, both priest and king ; and consequently, 
that when he comes forth from the temple of God in heaven, 
to fulfil the final function of his priestly office, to " bless the 
people in the name of the Lord, that they may rejoice in his 
name," as a King as well as Priest he will come forth ; in royal 
dignity and power. But we have also formerly seen that as 
the Christ, the Anointed one whom God has set upon his 
throne and made his Vicegerent over all the earth, this office 
of government has been from the first entrusted to him — was 
claimed by him as his right even in the days of his humiliation 
— and is now exercised by him, from the right hand of the Most 
High, over all things, for his body's sake, which is the Church. 

The coming again, then, of Jesus as Judge, will be, in the 
first place, in order to vindicate to himself this royal authority ; 
to show himself to all men what he truly is ; to receive the 
universal homage of a subject world. " Art thou the Christ, 
the Son of the Blessed ?" said the Pharisees. " And Jesus 
said, / am ; and ye shall see the Son of man, sitting on the 
right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." 
Mark xiv. 61, 62. 

For, to judge, we must remember, in Eastern phraseology, 
is not merely to decide causes between man and man ; to dis- 
pense rewards and punishments ; but it is to rule and govern ; 



212 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

to act the part of a sovereign, and as a royal function, be- 
longing to his personal duty and prerogative, to exercise jus- 
tice and judgment among his people. Which idea is still 
preserved even in Western judicatures, in which all causes are 
heard and decided, and all sentences are pronounced, in the 
name of the sovereign, under whom, and for whom, the judges 
act. It is on this account that the rulers of Israel from the 
time of Joshua to Saul are called its " Judges." Judg. ii. 1 6, 1 7. 
It is in this sense, as Supreme Ruler, and therefore Orderer 
and Disposer of all things, that Abraham appeals to God him- 
self, " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?" Gen. 
xviii. 25. It is in this sense that the Psalmist declares " Pro- 
motion Cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor 
from the south, but God is the Judge ; he putteth down one, 
and setteth up another." Ps. Ixxv. 6, 7. And it is because of 
this that he calls out to Him for redress, " O Lord God, to 
whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself; lift up thyself, thou 
Judge of all the earth /" Ps. xciv. 1, 2. 

Now, it is Jesus the Son of God, thus " showing himself;'' 
— lifting up himself from his throne to step forth and execute 
universal and final retribution ; — that is proclaimed to us, when 
we are assured that he will come " to judge the quick and the 
dead." When the prophet Isaiah describes His office and 
qualities as the Root from the stem of Jesse, the royal De- 
scendant of David, he makes this prominent among them, that 
" with righteousness shall he judged' i. e, avenge, or do right 
to " the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the 
earth." Isaiah xi. 4. When St. Peter had proclaimed to 
Cornelius " peace by Jesus Christ, as Lord of all,' he goes on 
to testify that as thus universal Lord he " is ordained by God 
to be the Judge of quick and dead.'' Acts x. 36, 42. When 
St. James exhorts the sufi*ering Christians to bear their per- 
secutions with fortitude ; and amidst personal anguish to cherish 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 213 

brotherly love ; he points to the final interposition of their 
Lord, in two equivalent phrases : " Be patient therefore, bre- 
thren, — for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge 
not one against another — behold the Judge standeth at the 
door!" Jam. V. 8, 9. And when St. Paul would stimulate 
the timorous Timothy^ he charges him to diligence, " before 
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and 
dead at his appearing 2Xi.^ his kingdom;" (2Tim. iv. 1); i,e, 
when he shall appear to set up, in its full extent and manifest 
glory, his royal power and authority. O glorious prospect I 
O exhilarating hope I Our eyes shall see the King in his 
glory I That which was once enacted before him in mockery 
shall then be accomplished in reality. For a crown of thorns 
his head shall be adorned with the diadem of universal mon- 
archy ; for the fragile reed, he shall hold that sceptre where- 
with he shall rule the nations ; for the purple robe, he shall 
be clothed with the brightness of the sun ; and for the blas- 
phemous bowing of the knee in mockery he shall receive the 
homage of a prostrate world ! " He shall have dominion 
from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. 
They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and 
his enemies shall lick the dust I " Ps. Ixxii. 8, 9. 

For this will follow as the second object for which Christ 
comes again : — to punish all who resist his authority/. O that a 
subject so dreadful should be unavoidably mixed up with one 
so glorious ! O that the shouts of the angelic ministers 
of the King of Glory should be responded to by the groans of 
guilty men ! Yet, can it be otherwise ? Can justice be dis- 
played without the punishment of the wicked ? Can the 
grand Idea of Retribution be brought out in all its fulness, 
and not take the form of vengeance against the obstinate? 
Can the authority of Christ be vindicated without the ruin of 



214 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

those who resist that authority ? Can his kingdom be set up 
without the " gathering out of it all things that offend ?" Alas I 
We know too well that thus it must be. The word of God is 
full of it. The very revelation through which alone we learn 
God's mercy to the penitent, tells us of it. The warnings, 
even of the affectionate Redeemer point to it. The fore- 
bodings of the guilty conscience of sinners themselves authen- 
ticate it. And the sense of justice in the very nature of every 
one of us justifies, yea demands it. The triumph of good 
must be the destruction of evil. The sovereignty of the 
Holy One must be the casting out of the defiled. " The ad- 
versaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, for the Lord 
shall judge the ends of the earth ; and he shall give strength 
unto his King, and exalt the horn of his Anointed." 1 Sam. ii. 
10. " The Lord hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a 
Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at 
thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath ! 
He shall judge among the heathen !" Ps. ex. 4 — 6. " When 
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy 
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his 
glory : and before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he 
shall separate them one from another^' (there is the pure Idea 
of Judgment — discrimination — distinction — separation !) '•' as 
a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats ; and he shall 
set the sheep on his right hand, hut the goats on the left — And 
then shall he say unto them on the left hand. Depart from me, 
ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
angels I" Matt. xxv. 31—33, 41. And are you ready, 
Reader, for this awful separation ? Have you settled in your- 
self to which class you belong? Does your present con- 
science, which is the index of that future sentence, place you 
among the sheep — or, the goats? Among the friends of 
Christ — or, his enemies ? Among those who may rejoice in 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 215 

his appearing? or, who must shudder at the very thought 
of it ? What if, this moment, he were to come again ? 
Would you spring forth towards him, as to a well-known, 
honoured Friend ? Or would you start away from him with 
dismay; as one you have neglected, dreaded, dishonoured, 
disobeyed ? Look and see. The time is short. Your whole 
life is not many years. You must appear before the judgment- 
seat of Christ I 

But there is yet another purpose for which Christ will 
come, and we gladly hasten to it. He will come, thirdly, to 
recompense all who have submitted to his authority. God's 
judgment is continually represented as his interposition for 
the recompense of his people. " To me" he says by Moses, 
" belongeth vengeance, and recompense. For the Lord shall 
judge " (i. e. avenge) " his people, and repent himself for his 
servants." Deut. xxxii. 35, SQ. We cannot be God's ser- 
vants without having set ourselves in opposition to God's ene- 
mies. We cannot have thoroughly given ourselves up to 
Christ's authority without having renounced, and being daily 
struggling against, the authority of the world, the flesh, 
and the devil. And who knows not how perilous is this 
struggle ? Who feels not how the spirits faint, the powers 
become exhausted, in our deadly contest ; till the sore- 
pressed Christian pants and presses for deliverance — for a 
breathing time — for a rest — and joins the souls under the 
altar who cry out with a loud voice, " How long O Lord, 
holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge us I" Rev. vi. 
9, 10. 

And, blessed be God ! we know that " he will avenge his 
own elect, though he bear long with them ! " Luke xviii. 7. 
He will come in his own time, thus to judge his people ; to 
maintain their cause ; to cheer their hearts ; to overthrow 



216 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

their adversaries ; to bruise Satan under their feet ; to bring 
to them that crown of righteousness which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge shall give to all who love his appearing. 
What says the Psalmist, when his spirit was full of this anti- 
cipation ? " The mighty God, even the Lord hath spoken, 
and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going 
down of the same." — (How grand the image here! a general 
summons sounding through the earth ; the voice of the Al- 
mighty, as of the last trump, pealing in every ear, Come forth 
to judgment !) " Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God 
hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence. 
He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, 
that he m^a.j judge his people /** (2. e. may avenge their cause ;) 
'' Gather my saints together unto me ; those that have made 
a covenant with me with sacrifice ! And the heavens shall 
declare his righteousness ; for God is judge himself T Ps. xc. 
1—6. 

And what shall be the consequence, yea concomitant, of 
this vindication of Christ's authority — and destruction of those 
who resist it — and recompense of those who have submitted 
to it ? Remember, lastly, He will come to establish this 
authority in all its fulness over the regenerated earth. 

The judgment of the world is at the same time its restora- 
tion. The taking out from it all things that offend is the 
renewing it into its pristine beauty and order and perfection ; 
so that once again the Lord may look upon it and declare, 
with a divine complacency. Behold, it is very good ! " For 
we," writes the Apostle Peter, " according to his promise, 
look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness." 2 Peter iii. 13. " Repent ye therefore^ and 
be converted," said the same Apostle, to the Jews, " that 
your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 217 

come from the presence of the Lord ; and he shall send Jesus 
Christ, who before was preached unto you, whom the heaven 
must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, of 
which times God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy 
prophets since the world began !" Acts iii. 19 — 21. O who 
can form an adequate image of those blessed times when order 
shall be the universal law! when sin shall have fled the earth ; — 
when falsehood, and injustice, and violence, and hatred, and 
rapine, shall be no more ; — when the wolf shall dwell with the 
lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; — when men 
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, and sorrow and 
sighing shall flee away ; — when the last enemy shall be de- 
stroyed, which is death ; — when, in one emphatic, all-compre- 
hending word, there shall he no more curse, but the throne of 
God and of the Lamb shall be on earth, and his servants shall 
serve him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on 
their foreheads I Well might the Psalmist call on universal 
nature to exult in this time of her delivery, for which she has 
groaned and travailed in pain until now ! Well might he say, 
" Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, let the 
sea roar and the fulness thereof; let the field be joyful, and all 
that is therein ; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice 
before the Lord; for he cometh ! for he cometh, to judge the 
earth I He shall judge the world with righteousness and the 
people with his truth I" Ps. xcvi. 1 1—13. 



THE APOSTLES' CREED. 



PART HI. 



GOD THE HOLY GHOST. 



The whole economy and dispensation of the kingdom of Christ is managed 
by THE Spirit of Christ. 

Bishop Hopkins. 



I. 2 



The Father to create, the Son to redeem, the Holy Ghost to sanctify and 
regenerate. Whereof the last, tlie more it is hid from our imderstanding, 
the more it ought to move all men to wonder at the secret and mighty work- 
ing of God's Holy Spirit which is within us. For it is the Holy Ghost, and 
no other thing, that doth quicken the minds of men, stirring up good and 
godly motions in their hearts, which are agreeable to the •wdll and command- 
ment of God, sueh as otherwise of their own crooked and perverse nature they 
should never have. That which is bom of the Spirit is spirit. As who should 
say, Man of his own nature is fleshly and carnal, corrupt and naught, sinful 
and disobedient to God, without any spark of goodness in him, without any 
virtuous or godly motion, only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds. As 
for the works of the Spirit, the fruits of faith, charitable and godly motions, 
if he have any at all in him, they proceed only of the Holy Ghost, who 
is the only worker of our sanctification, and maketh us new men in Christ 
Jesus. — Homily for Whitsunday. 



PART III. 



GOD THE HOLY GHOST. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST- 

Never do we more need religious experience, than when 
considering religious doctrine. For it is only through the 
medium of the atmosphere, so to speak, which surrounds our- 
selves that we can have any discernment of the far-off truths 
of God. The source of those truths is indeed the word of 
God, and only from that central light can they stream forth 
to us ; but the perception of those truths by each one, as 
guides to him through life, depends entirely on his personal 
susceptibility for them — the relation to them of his state 
of mind. Abstract dogmas, in their abstractness, have either 
no meaning to us, or a false one ; and hence the coldness and 
the errors of merely speculative theologians. But doctrines 
looked at as responsive to our moral and spiritual yearnings 
are beheld by us in just those bearings, and with just those' 
modifications, which render them not dead metaphysical 
notions, but living practical Ideas. We cannot get essentially 
wrong in our consideration of them, because, at every step, 
the real within us regulates the speculative, and keeps it in its 
due relation to our moral and spiritual well-being. And thus 
it is that he who desires to do the will of God is best qualified 



222 



THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



to judge concerning each doctrine proposed to him, whether 
it be of God, or whether men speak of themselves. 

We have seen, in former chapters, how true this is of our 
right apprehension of the Creed. On our experience, or 
consciousness, of certain facts of our spiritual condition, de- 
pends our appreciation of the truths which it declares to us. 
Our sense of Limitatio7i and dependence enables us to feel the 
first great truth concerning " God the Father, who made us 
and all the world." Our consciousness of Guilt and ruin pre- 
pares us to receive the testimony concerning " God the Son, 
who hath redeemed us and all mankind." And our expe- 
rience of Corruption and infirmity makes welcome to us the 
doctrine concerning " God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth 

us, AND ALL THE ELECT PEOPLE OF GoD." 

It is at this third main Division of the Apostles' Creed that 
'sve are now arrived. O may He himself, of whom we are to 
treat, be present with us in our meditations on Him ! illu- 
minate our minds, direct our judgments, sanctify our hearts, 
work in us as the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the 
Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord I 

Now, in this third Division of the Creed there will be found 
three main particulars requiring our attention : The Nature of 
the Holy Ghost — His Office — and His Work, 

We give this Chapter to The Nature of the Holy Ghost. 

And here, as in our meditations on the Nature of the Son, 
we shall find the Names, or Titles, given to the Holy Ghost 
in the Creed a sufficient indication to us of his Nature. 

For, First, He is called " the Holy Ghost." Which term, 
" Ghost," you are aware, is an old word, now but little used, 
for what we at present call " Spirit." Whence the same 
event which is declared in St. Luke (iii. 22), where it is said 



THE NATURE OP THE HOLY GHOST. 223 

" The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape," is expressed 
in the parallel passage of St. Matthew (iii. 16) by the words 
" he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove ;" the 
original term in each passage being in fact the same. And 
this term " Spirit/' you are equally aware, is the best that has 
been found to express that invisible substance which dwells in 
us, as the subject of thought, and feeling, and will — the prin- 
ciple of mental life and action ; which is in fact our proper 
self; which we also call, though less properly,* our soul. 
Our soul, in this sense, is our spirit, our ghost ; distinct en- 
tirely from the body, and the bodily life.f 

Whence you learn, further, that in the use of these terras, 
" Ghost," and " Spirit," for the invisible substance which we 
call soul, you must be careful not to mix up with them any 
notion of mere shadowy unsubstantial being, as when people 
talk of " ghosts," as visionary appearances ; nor of mere power 
and vital energi/, as when they speak of acting with spirit and 
animation ; but must remember that they denote the most real 
and substantial of any existence that we know of. They 
express the proper being of man : — each one of us, though 
dwelling, for a few years, in a material body, is essentially a 

* Less properly: For the term soul, from the German seele, and Greek 
^«&/, to breathe, to live, like the Latin anima, from Greek civif^os, wind or 
breath, more distinctly designates the principle of animal life — the animal 
soul ; which is essentially distinct from the principle of mental life — the 
mental substance — the intelligent spirit. See on this important point, which 
bears so essentially on our conceptions, not only of man, and his pi-esent dig- 
nity and future hopes — but also of God, and his essential distinction from the 
life that breathes through all things, Herbart, Encyclop. der PMlosopliie, ch. 
xiv. p. 206. 

+ When Sapphira is said (Acts v. 10) to have " yielded up the ghost,"' 
the original is l^i^J/v^i, breathed forth her soul — her animal life. But when 
Stephen, with his last breath cried " Lord Jesus receive my spirit,'''' (Acts vii. 
59) the original is Tvsvf/.x, the mental substance, the man. 



224 THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

spirit — a ghost. And they denote, moreover, the proper 
being of God himself: — " God," said our blessed Lord to 
the woman of Samaria, " is a Spirit." As surely, therefore 
as your soul — i. e. your self — is a living, substantial, though 
invisible being ; much more substantial, in fact, because more 
simple and more permanent, than the complex, fluctuating, 
mortal body (which men sometimes speak of as if it alone were 
substance, but which is no better than the temporary habita- 
tion of your proper self) : yea, as surely as the Eternal, self- 
subsisting God, who created all things, who was before the 
mountains were brought forth or even the earth and the world 
were made, and yet who is called Spirit, is a living, sub- 
stantial, though invisible, being : so surely, when you say " I 
believe in the Holy Ghost " do you express your faith in One 
who is not the less real, because unseen by human eye, not the 
less living and substantial, because unfelt by human sense. 

And I need scarcely tell you how this real substantiality of 
the Holy Ghost is, not so much laid down as assumed, 
and taken for granted, in the word of God, in all the things 
that are said of Him, For just the same acts of thought, and 
feeling, and will are there ascribed to Him, as are ascribed to 
the human soul, or spirit, or ghost ; and he is spoken of as the 
subject of these acts, as much as we ourselves are. Do 2/ou, 
(that is) or does your soul, or spirit, or ghost, exercise 
thought and judgment, and purpose ? So also does the Holy 
Ghost. He is said by St. Paul to " know the things of 
God," and to " search all things, yea the deep things of 
God." 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11. And as to his working in the heart 
of man, he is said to do this " dividing to every man severally 
as he will," i. e. with the exercise of discrimination, judgment, 
choice. 1 Cor. xii. 11. Are 2/ou again, i. e. your soul, 
or spirit, or ghost, the subject of feeling and emotion ? So 
also is the Holy Ghost. St. Paul exhorts us " not to grieve 



THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 225 

the holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of 
redemption." Eph. iv. 30. And are you^ further, i. e. your 
soul, or spirit, or ghost, the living centre of active will, ori- 
ginating energy, and deliberate influence on other beings ? 
So also is the Holy Ghost. " The Holy Ghost said " to the 
Christians at Antioch, " Separate me Barnabas and Saul for 
the work whereunto I have called them." Acts xiii. 2. And 
when Paul and Timothy " had gone throughout Phrygia and 
the region of Galatia " they " were forbidden of the Holy 
Ghost to preach the word in Asia. And after they were come 
to Mysia they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Holy 
Ghost suffered them not'' Acts xvi. 6, 7. 

But further — and this is the third step in our argument, — 
these personal thoughts and feelings and acts are ascribed, in 
the word of God, to the Holy Ghost, as the invisible, and yet 
substantial, subject of them, in express distinction from the 
persons in whom, or through whom, or by whom, or towards 
whom he exercises them. That the Holy Ghost is distinct 
from the persons in whom he works, you see in such passages 
as Romans viii. 16; where we are told that " the Spirit him- 
self beareth witness with our spirit," i, e. in conjunction with, 
in addition to,* our spirit, " that we are the children of God." 
That the Holy Ghost is distinct from the Lord Jesus Christ, 
through whom he is sent, you see in our Lord's own declara- 
tion to his disciples, " I will pray the Father, and he shall 
give you another comforter ^'^ i. e, a guardian Friend ; who 
is promised in the place of, and therefore distinct from, Jesus 
himself, who was going away from them, " that he may abide 
with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth/' John xiv. 
16, 17, And that the Holy Ghost is distinct also from the 

* For, " (rvfji,fji.oi.^Tv^iii nunquam non una cum aliquo testari, cum aliquo, qui 
et ipse testatur, testimonium dicere denotat (Soph. Philoct. 436. Eur. Hel. 1080)." 
Fritzche ad Rom, 

L 5 



226 THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

Father, hy whom he is sent, is sufficiently implied in that very 
act of sending ; John xiv. 26 ; — in the assertion of Jesus that 
this Spirit of truth ^^ proceedethfrom the Father;" Johnxv. 26 ; 
— in the declaration of St. Paul that this same Spirit " maketh 
intercession for us " from the depths of our hearts, with the 
Father, " according to the will of God/' Rom. viii. 27; — and 
in the solemn injunction of our Lord, in which he prescribes 
that very formula of baptism of which our Creed is but the 
expansion, " Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them," 
not, in the name of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
three different aspects merely of one and the same subject, but 
" in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost." * 

The Holy Ghost, then, by virtue of his very title " The 
Spirit," is no mere quality of some other subject — no mere 
operation of some other agent, — but himself a subject, (like 
our own spirit, or ghost, or soul,) of thoughts, and feelings 
and acts — an invisible — yet a substantial — and a distinct 
Existence. 

But this is not all. The Being in whom we profess to 
believe in the Creed, is termed, moreover, emphatically, 
" The Holy Ghost :" i. e. the sacred, august, divine. Spirit. 
In the same sense, and no lower one, in which Hannah says 
" There is none holy as the Lord ; for there is none beside 
thee." 1 Sam. ii. 2. In the same sense, and no lower one, 
in which our blessed Lord addresses God, when he says, 
" Holy" i. e. sacred, awful, divine, " Father, keep through 
thine own name those whom thou hast given me." John xvii. 

* Where, " the distinctiveness " (of the three persons) " is imported both in 
tJie article put to each, 'raw Uut^os of the Father, rod Ttov of the Son, tov 
'Ayiav Ylvivf/MTos of the Holy Ghost ; ' and also in the particle xk), as distinctly- 
put to each : ' and of the Son, a7id of the Holy Ghost.'" — Goodwin. 



THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 227 

1 4. In the same sense, and no lower one, in which God 
himself demands, by his prophet, " To whom will ye liken 
me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One.'' Isa. xl. 25. In 
the same sense, therefore, and no lower one, in which the 
angels and archangels which surround the throne of the 
Most High cry before him day and night, " Holy, Holy, Holy, 
Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come ; the 
whole earth is full of thy glory I" Isa. vi. 3. Rev. iv. 8. 

And hence, this same Being, who is termed in some pas- 
sages of Scripture, " The Holy Ghost ;" and in others " The 
Spirit," i. e. the Source and Lord of all Spirits ; is called again 
in others, " The Spirit of God.'' To Him divine works are 
attributed — as when it is said, " The Spirit of God moved on 
the face of the waters, and God said Let there be light and 
there was light." Gen. i. 2, 3. To Him divine qualities are 
assigned — as when He is said to " search all things, even the 
deep things of God." 1 Cor. ii. 10. To Him a divine au- 
thority is vindicated, so that " whosoever speaketh against the 
Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world' 
neither in the world to come." Matt. xii. 32. And to Him a 
divine equality of Power, of Majesty, of vital Energy, and of 
worship, with the Father and the Son is assigned. Like them, 
He is the Author of our Salvation : — " Elect" says St. Peter, 
" according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through 
sanctifi cation of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of 
the blood of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter i. 2. Like them, He is 
the object to whose service we are solemnly consecrated ; — 
" Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Matt. 
xxviii. 1 9. Like them. He is the Supreme Life in the Chris- 
tian Church : — " There are diversities of gifts, but the same 
Spirit, and there are differences of administrations, but the 
same Lord, and there are diversities of operations, but it is the 



228 



THE NATUEE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



same God which worketh all in all." 1 Cor. xii. 4 — 6. And 
like them, He is the Source from whence all grace and blessing 
are implored : — " The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
love of God, and the communion of the Holy GhosU he with 
you all. Amen ! " 2 Cor. xiii. 1 4. 

Here, then, we are brought to that incomprehensible, and 
yet most certain truth, of the Holy, distinct, yet undivided. 
Trinity ; three persons but one God. It follows, you see, 
unavoidably, from what, in this and in preceding chapters, 
we have learned, from the word of God. We have found 
before, from that authentic and authoritative source, that the 
Son possesses Deity. We see now that the Holy Ghost is 
spoken of as possessing Deity. And can we express these 
truths in any more intelligible language than that of the First 
Article of our Church ? " In the unity of the Godhead there 
be three persons of one substance, power, and eternity, the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ! " We attempt not to 
explain. We only declare what we read. We invent not the 
doctrine. We only submit to the conclusions which the Scrip- 
ture statements force on us. And that this doctrine, however 
obscure in itself, is yet not obscurely declared in Scripture, this 
we firmly maintain. It is, we say, distinct, though it cannot 
be clear — distinctly revealed, though it never can be clearly 
understood. And I beg you to consider, on all subjects like this, 
in which our only business is to ascertain, and not to elucidate, 
the facts of the inspired page, that those two terms " distinct," 
and " clear," express very different notions ; which notions need 
by no means be found co-existing in one and the same object. 
An object is distinct when its outline is plainly marked out, — 
when it is distinguished from all other objects. It is clear, 
when within that outline itself, you perceive all its parts and 
features. And thus, what is perfectly distinct, as contrasted 



THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 229 

with other objects, may at the same time be far from clear, as 
looked at in itself. The glorious sun is distinct in the heavens ; 
no one can miss observing it ; no man can mistake it for any- 
thing else ; it stands out a hxoa,di fact on the aerial page. Yet 
that sun in itself- — is it cleai' ? Can you map out its disk ? 
Can you penetrate the darkness of its excessive light ? Can 
you tell me clearly/ its nature, though you see so distinctly its 
existence ? Just so is the doctrine to which we have been led 
in this chapter. It is distinct in Scripture ; even as the sun is 
distinct in the firmament. But do we therefore say it is clear in 
itself ? We see enough of it relatively to all other theories to 
say what it is not ; (in which distinctions hes the main merit of 
the Athanasian Creed) but do we therefore pretend to say ab- 
solutely what it is ? Nay rather, with trembling humility, we 
confess, with St. Augustine, that the sum of our certainty is 
to know that it is. " Truly" says that writer, " since the 
Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father ; and again, the 
Holy Spirit is neither the Father, nor the Son ; it is plain 
they are three. But when men ask what three ? then language 
is beggared ; we have nothing to answer. We call them in- 
deed ' persons,' but we do this, not as attempting to say what 
they are, but only that we may not leave the question altoge- 
ther without reply." * 

Thus then we assert that the doctrine of the Trinity is dis- 
tinct, though not clear. We know what it is not — it is not 
Arianism — it is not Sabellianism — it is not Tritheism. But 
wha,t it is, we do not know. We do not pretend to know. We 
are sure we cannot know. It shines out brightly on the page 

* " Revera enim, cum Pater non sit Filius et Filius non sit Pater, et Spiritus 
Sanctus ille, qui etiam donum Dei vocatur, nee Pater sit nee Filius, tres utique 
sunt ; tamen cum quaeritur, quid tres ? magna prorsus inopia humanum laborat 
eloquium : dictum est tamen tres persona:, non ut illud diceretur sad ne tacere- 
tur."— Z)e Trinit v. 9. 



230 THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

of Scripture, but its very brightness blinds us. It is like the 
vision of the Almighty to St. John : " He that sat upon the 
throne was to look at, like a jasper and a sardine stone ! " too 
dazzling for any steady gaze ! It is like the Almighty him- 
self : " dwelling in the light that no man can approach unto, 
whom no man hath seen, nor can see!" " Canst thou by 
searching find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty 
unto perfection ? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do ? 
Deeper than hades, what canst thou know? The measure 
thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea ! " 

And yet, forget not, that this awfully mysterious God is not 
unconnected with the creatures whom he has made. He is in- 
finitely above us in nature, but he comes down to us in love. 
He is far beyond our comprehension, but he is within the 
reach of our necessities. The doctrine of the Holy Ghost is 
specially the doctrine of God communicating himself to his 
creation. As the Idea of the Father is that of God as the 
Ground of all things — and the Idea of the Son is that of God 
as the Law of all things — so the Idea of the Holy Ghost is 
that of God as the Life of all things. The Father originates 
— the Son regulates — the Holy Ghost actuates. The Father 
is Deity invisible — the Son is Deity manifested — the Holy 
Ghost is Deity communicated. " He proceedeth from the 
Father and the Son ;" says the Nicene Creed. " Though 
one" as an ancient Jewish writer says of the divine Wisdom, 
" He can do all things ; and remaining in himself, he maketh 
all things new ; and in all ages entering into holy souls, he 
maketh them friends of God and prophets." From his quick- 
ening presence flows all the physical life of this animated 
world. " By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens." Job 
xxvi. 1 3. " Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created, 
and thou renewest the face of the earth." Ps. civ. 30. From 
his inspiration, again, comes all the mental life of the human 



THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 231 

soul. " There is a spirit in man ; and the inspiration of the 
Almighty giveth them understanding." Job xxxii. 8. And 
through His inworking is produced all that is great, and no- 
ble, and energetic in the moral life of the human will. By 
Him, God infused himself into his prophets : " Holy men of 
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." % Peter 
i. 21. By Him, he actuated the Apostles: "They were all 
filled with the Holy Ghost^, and began to speak with other 
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Actsii. 4. And 
by Him he dwells in every believer ; to be in him the source of 
all heavenly cogitations, holy feelings, and vigorous deeds : 
" Ye are builded together for an habitation of God through 
the Spirit I " Eph. ii. 22. But for this doctrine of the Spirit 
what would God be to us ? But a mere lifeless notion ! not 
only distinct from the universe, but separated from it I not 
only above the world but altogether unconnected with the 
world I The dry philosophical dogma of the Unity of God 
presents us only with an infinitely abstract, and infinitely dis- 
tant, first Cause — but no living^ present, actuating God. The 
Scripture doctrine, on the contrary, exhibits to us this God as 
manifested in all ages to give law to his creation ; and as 
present in all places to animate that creation.* Even as says 
the Prophet 



* " The utter rejection of all present and living communion with the Univer- 
sal Spirit impoverishes Deism itself, and renders it as cheerless as Atheism, 
from which indeed it would differ only by an obscure impersonation of what 
the Atheist receives unpersonified under the name of Fate or Nature." Cole- 
ridge: Aids to Reflection^ p. 82, (1st Ed.) 

Whence he says, p. 170, " The scriptural and only true Idea of God will, 
in its developement, be found to involve the Idea of the Trinity. As will, in- 
deed, any Idea of God which does not either identify the Creator with the 
creation ; or else represent the supreme Being as a mere impersonal Law, 
or Ordo ordinans, differing from the law of gravity only by its universa- 
lity." 



232 THE NATURE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places 
that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill 
heaven and earth ? saith the Lord." Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. 

And Oj then, bring this lofty subject to a practical point, 
by bringing it down into your heart ! Feel your need of 
spiritual communion with the Being who made you — and who 
governs you — and seek this communion through the present 
indwelling of his Spirit actuating you. It were vain to think 
correctly of the Holy Ghost, if we do not know personally the 
Holy Ghost. And this personal knowledge, or experience, of 
the Holy Ghost is to be gained only in the exercise of per- 
sonal love to God, and efforts to please God. " If a man love 
me " says our Lord, " he will keep my words ; and my Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode 
with him ! " John xiv. 23. 



235 



CHAPTER II. 

THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

We have said that in the doctrine of the Apostles' Creed 
concerning the Holy Ghost there are three main points pro- 
posed to us — His Nature — His Office — and His Work. 

As to His Nature, we have seen that he is set before us as 
an invisible — substantial — distinct — divine Being- ; the Com- 
municator of the quickening and sustaining energy of Deity, 
throughout the Universe : a character which the Nicene Creed 
expresses very forcibly, though very briefly, when it denomi- 
nates Him " the Lord and Giver of Life." 

In descending now to the next main point, — The Office of 
the Holy Ghost, we must contract our view from his general 
relation to the universe, to that particular connexion which 
he enters into with the disciples of Christ : for it is with refe- 
rence to this connexion that we have been baptized into his 
name, and that we confess him in our Creed ; as says our 
Catechism, " I learn to believe in God the Holy Ghost as 
sanctifying me and all the elect people of God" 

Now the Office of the Holy Ghost in this relation, and 
towards this particular body of men — the followers of Christ 
— consists in the supplying to them the presence of their Lord, 
hy a real indwelling in their soul. 

That its main object is to supply the presence of Christ 
to his people is manifest from the terms in which our Lord 



234 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

promises the communication of this divine Being. Throw 
your mind back into that parting scene, depicted by St. John, 
(ch. xiv) when this great promise was made ; and you will see 
that the sum of Christ's consolation to his alarmed disciples 
amounts to this," All that I have hitherto been to you, that shall 
the Holy Ghost henceforth be, as my representative, in you !" 

And what had Jesus been to his disciples ? Their all ! He 
had called them to himself — he had taught them the truths of 
God — he had comforted them — he had directed them — he had, 
to some extent, at least, influenced their minds, won their 
affections, secured to himself their will. He was, in a word, 
their guide, companion, and own familiar friepd. And we 
have only to look at the utter consternation into which they 
were thrown when the notion of his removal from them was at 
last forced on their comprehension ; and yet further at the 
childish weakness and despondency which they displayed when 
they were left without his presence ; to judge to what an ex- 
tent, (far beyond what even they themselves suspected,) they 
had been leaning on this gracious Friend, and losing, almost, 
their own personality in his. Such was Jesus to his disciples. 
And they began to feel, in their newly roused apprehension, 
that he was such. " Their heart was troubled, and they were 
afraid." 

Now, how does their gracious Master cheer them in their 
despondency ? Not simply, observe, by calling on them to ex- 
eircise faith in God, and in himself; to look forward to the end 
for which he was about to leave them, and to the certainty of 
his ultimate return to take them to himself: (v. 1 — 4) but, 
moreover, by promising them in the mean time, and till this 
return. One like himself, to supply his place ; to realize to 
them his presence ; and to be to them all, and more than all, 
that he himself had been. " I will pray the Father/' he says, 
V. 16 — 18, "and he will give you another Comforter,''' another 



THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 235 

such a Friend, and Guide, and Counsellor, and Protector, (for 
the word. Paraclete^ includes all these notions) as I myself 
have been to you ; " even the Spirit of truth I " Or, as Jesus 
reiterates the promise, in the 26th verse, " the Comforter, 
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my 
name,'^ i. e. in my place, as my representative, to fulfil to you 
my office, '^ he shall teach you all things, and bring all things 
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 
'^ For," he adds, in chap. xvi. 1 3, " he shall not speak of him- 
self as some one acting independently and differently from 
me, " but whatsoever he shall hear" (i. e. from me) " that shall 
he speak ; and he shall glorify me," {i, e. shall give you en- 
larged conceptions of my character and dignity) " for he shall 
receive of mine and shew it unto youT 

Here then you perceive how plainly the office of the Holy 
Ghost is set forth by our Lord as that of supplying the place 
of Christ himself— being another Friend like him ; completing 
his instructions ; developing his character and dignity ; and 
carrying on his work. What Jesus was in the flesh, that was 
the Holy Ghost to be in the heart. What Jesus was visibly, 
that was the Holy Ghost to be invisibly. He who had hitherto 
dwelt with them^ at their side, in the person of Jesus, should 
thenceforth be in them, in direct communication with their 
own minds. 

And hence it is that the Holy Ghost is called so frequently 
the Spii'it OF Christ : and that the Nicene Creed declares that 
" he proceedeth from the Father, and the Son.'' The Spirit 
had been given without measure, in his entire indwelling, to 
Jesus, for his work on earth. The manifestations of that 
Spirit, in word, and deed, his disciples had already beheld, 
while Jesus was before them : " Ye know him," says our 
Lord, "for he dwelleth with you;" that is, "In my person, 
and as breathing forth himself from me, you are already 



236 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

acquainted with his purity and power." And it is therefore as 
proceeding from him ; transfused, as it were, into them, from 
himself; that he promises that, on his departure, this same 
Spirit should be "m them." Of which transfusion Jesus gave 
them an expressive symbol, after his resurrection, when " he 
breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." John 
xx= 22. 

And thus, moreover, being the Spirit of the Father, w^hich 
He gave to Christ ; and also the Spirit of Christ, as dwelling 
in him throughout his ministry, the promised presence of this 
Comforter in the heart of the disciples, to supply the place of 
Christ, is represented as effecting, at the same time, the pre- 
sence of Christ, through whom he is vouchsafed; nay and of 
the Father by whom he is vouchsafed. For after that Jesus 
had said, v. 17, " he now dwelleth by you but he shall be in 
you," he adds, v. 18, "I will not leave you comfortless," i. e. 
like orphans, without a friend and guardian, " I myself will 
come to you." And again, v. 21, " he that loveth me shall be 
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and / will manifest 
myself unto him." And yet again, v. 23, " If any man love 
me he will keep my words ; and my Father will love him, and 
we will come unto him and make our abode with him." O es- 
sential unity of the Godhead I that to receive the Holy Ghost 
is to receive the Spirit of Christ ; and to receive the Spirit of 
Christ is to receive the Spirit of God ! that to have the Spirit 
in us is to have Christ in us, and to have Christ in us is to 
have God in us ! Even as St. Paul prays for the Ephesians, 
" that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, 
to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man ; 
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; — that ye may 
be filled with all the fulness of God !" Eph. iii. 16, 17, 19. 

But, secondly, the Holy Ghost supplies the place of Christ 



THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



237 



to his people, by a real indwelling in their souls. This 
point is not less clearly stated than the former. " He shall be 
in you." Particularly when you look at the contrast intended, 
by that expression, with what went before. " He now dwelleth 
with you" in my person, objectively ; but " he shall be in you," 
in yourselves subjectively.* This, indeed, indicates a fact not 
lying within the sphere of the senses, or of the understanding, 
but emphatically transcendent ; that is, lying beyond those nar- 
row confines. But still it is a fact of which our reason may 
be in some sort convinced ; and which, at any rate, is assured 
to o\xr faith by the unerring testimony of the word of God. 

The Indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the heart of the be- 
liever is, we must carefully remember, a Fact, not perceptible 
by our senses. For in this particular it is that the true doc- 
trine of Scripture is distinguished from the pretensions of fana- 
ticism. Men have imagined to themselves the Spirit, and 
spoken of the Spirit, as if He were just the reverse of what his 
very name denotes, and were not Spirit but Matter — in some 
form or other, however ethereal and refined, still Matter. 
They dream of Him as some physical substance ; they speak 
of his communication as of that of some physical gift ; they 
fancy that they are sensible of his presence within them, as of 
some physical inhabitant. I was once told, by a really earnest 
though ignorant woman, that she knew she had received the 
Holy Ghost, for she sometimes felt him fluttering in her 
bosom ! And this, extravagant as it may seem, (and what 

* John xiv. 17 : 'va,^ vfiiv f^ivn, xa) IV v{jt,iv 'iffrau Where the Trocpu. must 
indicate apud^juxta,\o?, ; namely, as dwelling in, and manifesting himself by, 
me. For the verb is present ; and to interpret it in the future, would be only 
to anticipate the next clause. Compare v. 25 : " These things have I spoken 
unto you, being t/et present with you, -tto.^' v/mv fjt.ivuv.'''' -Also ch. i. 39, " They 
abode loith him (ira^* alrZ 'ifisivuv) that day." And ch. iv. 40 : The Samari- 
tans " besought him that he would tarri/ tvith them ; (/ub7vcx,i T»p' avroTs) and 
he abode there (j/t^uviv txtl) two days." Also Acts ix. 43. 



238 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

one would hesitate to speak of but as an illustration of our 
point) is yet only a more gross mode of expressing, what is 
necessarily implied in the very notion of all who fancy that in 
any way, by any of our external senses or our inward feelings, 
we can be sensible of the indwelling of this essentially spiri- 
tual — i. e. not sensible — Guest. For all the language of the 
Fanatic, so far as it is specifically different from the meaning 
of the word of God, is grounded on just this error, that it 
assumes his inward perception, not merely of the graces which 
are wrought by the Spirit in his intellect, and affections, and 
determinations ; but of the Spirit himself so operating on the 
soul, without^ yea even against his reason and his will. To 
which assumption I answer only this. If such perception is 
possible, why does the Apostle call on the Corinthians to 
exercise their 7nind and conscience — not their bodily senses, or 
their unintelligent emotions, but their deliberative faculties, — 
to ascertain if they possess the Spirit of Christ, and therefore 
Christ himself, within their souls ? " Examine yourselves, 
whether ye be in the faith ;" — it is a matter, observe, of rational 
deduction, not of instinctive sensation ',-—^^ prove your own- 
selves ;" — try, probe, and test your character and disposition — 
" know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in 
yoUi except ye be reprobates ?" 2 Cor. xiii. 5. 

But, though the Indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the soul 
of the believer is no matter of perception to either an outward 
or an inward sense, it is a Fact, of which even our reason may 
be in some sort convinced. That is, though we cannot be sen- 
sible of His presence in us, yet that presence we cannot but 
infer from its effects. For what is the fact ? It is a fact, to 
which thousands can testify ; and for confirmation of which 
we can refer to the living words, and deeds, and character of 
thousands ; that those who are truly followers of Christ, who 



THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



239 



love him and keep his commandments, are endowed with cer- 
tain principles, dispositions, and habits ; of mind and feeling 
and will ; which the world of the unconverted has not received, 
neither does it understand. The knowledge of God as our 
reconciled Father in Christ — the love of God as our Friend 
and Saviour — the will, and in some poor measure the act, of 
self-devotion to the moral service of that God and Father thus 
revealed to us and beloved by us, — these are facts, concerning 
which we make appeal, not only to the honest, though humble, 
consciousness of the Christian himself, but to the admissions, 
even the accusations, of the world. The world itself cannot 
deny, what sometimes it attributes to unworthy motives ; some- 
times it ridicules as singular and affected ; sometimes it ex- 
claims against as needlessly strict and rigid; sometimes it 
pities as enthusiastic self-sacrifice. Men do become changed 
from godlessness to piety. Men do exhibit spirituality, self- 
denial, unearthliness. Men do take up their cross and follow 
their Master through evil report, and good report. Whether 
religion be good or bad, rational or irrational, just or extrava- 
gant, it assuredly is. And he has little knowledge of man- 
kind, and of the actual life around him, who doubts that it 
really, sincerely, essentially is. And that which observation 
will tell us of men living, history tells us of men passed away. 
The annals of genuine Church History — the history, that is, 
of men possessed of the spirit of their Master, — from the 
book of the Acts, and the letters of the Apostles, downwards 
through the pages of a Milner or a Neander, and a D'Au- 
bigne, all substantiate the fact that there have been, (as 
there are,) men, professing themselves in earnest, yea and 
most evidently in earnest, who possessed certain principles, 
dispositions and habits, which they gained not from the world, 
for the world disowns them ; and which they found not in 
themselves, for they had walked contrary to them, yea and still 



240 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

find something in their own personal nature opposed to them. 
Here then are facts in the consciousness, and facts in the life, 
which must have a cause. But this cause is not in the world — 
it is not in our own corrupt — still corrupt, — and earthly nature. 
And yet this cause as operating on our inmost states of mind 
must be assumed in close connection with that mind ; it must 
be in us, though not of us. Where then will you seek this 
cause — where will you find it — but in a source distinct from 
the world — distinct from your own fallen spirit — and yet en- 
shrined within the very centre of that spirit — that is, in the 
Holy Spirit of God ? " No man," says St. Paul, " can say 
that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghosts 1 Cor. xii. 3. 
And again : " We have received, not the spirit of the world, 
but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things 
that are freely given to us of God." 1 Cor. ii. 12. 

But then, perhaps it may be said. True ; God does work all 
things that are good. To the Spirit of God we must ascribe 
all holy principles, dispositions, and habits. But, why suppose 
this Spirit dwelling in the individual soul? Why contend for 
a supernatural, inconceivable, unphilosophical grace, mysteri- 
ously acting in and with the human mind and will ? God 
works on us by means of our fellow men. Christ acts 
through his people. The Spirit of God dwells in, and ope- 
rates by, his church. And all the effects which you refer 
to may have been produced by the ordinary efficacy of human 
instruction, discipline, persuasion, example. To which we 
answer, that reason itself, in proportion as we attend to it, will 
show us the insufficiency of this hypothesis to account for the 
phenomena to which we point. No doubt God does work by 
man on men. Assuredly Christ does make use of his people 
as the channels of his influence, on the world without them, 
and on individual Christians around them. Most certainly 
the Church of Christ aff'ords as it were the atmosphere in 



THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 241 

which the Spirit of God delights to dwell and spread himself. 
But then, consider, all these external influences are, and by 
the very constitution of our nature, can be, only occasions, 
opportunities, means, of spiritual change or spiritual improve- 
ment in the heart and will of man — but never the cause. It is 
our peculiar nature, as spiritual beings, persons and not things, 
that we are, each one in the recesses of his own soul, the ori- 
ginators of our own thoughts, and feelings, and actions, 
the centre of our own personality ; not merely acted on from 
without, but acting independently, and each according to his 
idiosyncracy, by a living energy within. Whence it is that, 
(even as the wisest philosophers have maintained,) virtue 
cannot be taught — cannot be conveyed from one man to 
another — cannot be secured by all the assiduities of education, 
and all the force of discipline. All the influence of our 
fellow men, whether by instruction, or persuasion, or example, 
can do no more than furnish the occasions and opportunities for 
the calling up our own inward judgment and feeling and will ; 
which inward judgment and feeling and will is determined 
at last, with reference to the point in hand, not by what 
is conveyed to u^from without, but by a work which goes on 
within. Else, just the same outward opportunities would 
produce just the same inward results, to every one who is sub- 
jected to them. The seed sown would in every case produce 
the same harvest. But this, you know, is not the case. You 
know that the productiveness of the seed depends, not simply 
on the quality, or the quantity, of that seed itself ; but also on 
the nature of the soil into which it falls. You know that of 
any given assemblage of Christian worshippers, who join in 
the same prayers, listen to the same chapters of the Bible, 
and are instructed by the same voice, in the same truths of 
religion, not one receives precisely the same impression, and 
reaps precisely the same fruits from this common opportunity 

M 



242 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

(so well called a mean of grace) with any other one. The 
occasio7i is afforded /rom without; and that equally to ail. 
But the improvement of that occasion will depend on the state 
and working of the mind within ; and this is different in each. 
Now whence this difference in each ? To what cause must it 
be ascribed ? What makes you experience a result which 
your neighbour does not experience ? Nay more — - what 
makes you experience a result at one time which you yourself 
had never experienced from similar words and similar circum- 
stances at any former time ? If results are produced from 
your intercourse with other Christians which, you see at once, 
cannot be ascribed to them as the efficient cause — any more 
than you can trace them up to your own nature — then, what 
is the conclusion, which from pure consideration of the facts 
of the case must be forced upon you, but this ; that this effi- 
cient cause must be recognized, not in any thing external to 
yourself, nor any thing natural to yourself, but in the inwork- 
ing of the superhuman, and supernatural Spirit of God? 
Saul had the outward ministrations of Ananias. Saul was 
with the disciples at Damascus certain days. Yet Saul de- 
clares to the Galatians, " I certify you, brethren, that the 
Gospel which was preached of me is not after man ; for I 
neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the 
revelation of Jesus Christ." Gal. i. 11, 12. 

Besides — consider again. If all our piety comes to us from 
the instruction, and persuasion, and example, of our fellow- 
Christians, whence came that piety in those fellow-Christians 
themselves, which impels them to instruct, and persuade, and 
be an example to, us ? If you answer, from their friends and 
their predecessors ; the question recurs. And whence did their 
friends and their predecessors obtain it ? And if you go on re- 
peating the question, and repeating the answer, till you get back 
to the times of the Apostles, and through them to Jesus, as 



THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 243 

the Author of all Christian instruction, and influence ; then 
again the question must be put, But how then came even that 
instruction and influence, which flowed forth from the Saviour 
himself, to work piety in some around him and not in all? — 
"WTience did it sanctify the Apostles and not the multitude ? — 
Why did it work effectually on the Eleven, and not on the 
twelfth? — till again you are sent inward to recognize the cause 
of the difference as a something existing in the mind of the in- 
dividual, and you are forced to the conclusion which our Lord 
himself has inculcated^ " No man can come to me, except the 
Father which hath sent me draw him. It is written in the pro- 
phets, They shall be all taught of God;" (which very prophe- 
cies, remember, are prophecies of the gift of the Holy Ghost;} 
" Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the 
Father, cometh unto me." John vi. 44, 45. Without the as- 
sumption of an inworking Spirit, in the inner soul, you run 
along an endless series of effects without a cause. Each man 
is influenced by another. But who influences the influencer ? 
Paul stirs me up to holiness. But who stirs Paul to stir me ? 
And just, therefore, as reason assures us, (and the argument 
is admitted to be unanswerable) that there must be a God in 
nature, because there cannot be a series, however long, of 
effects without a Cause ; so equally does reason assure us that 
. there must be a God in the mind of the believer, because there 
cannot be a series, however long, of holy effects, without a 
holy Cause. And this Cause of all holy effects, this Author 
of all godliness, this Lord and Giver of all Spiritual life, is 
God the Holy Ghost. " It is God which worketh in you both 
to will and to do, of his good pleasure." Phil. ii. 13. " There 
are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit ; and there are dif- 
ferences of administrations but the same Lord ; and there are 
diversities of operations ; but it is the same God which worketh 
all in all." 1 Cor. xii. 4-6. 

M 2 



244 



THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



But still, while we deprecate all appeal to sense on this im- 
portant truth, and yet can confidently make appeal to reaso7z, 
in its favour, it must not be forgotten that it comes to us as a 
special truth of revelation, assured to /aitk by the unerring 
testimony of the word of God. 

For its very form, remember, as well as its authority, is 
supplied to us mainly from this source. It is not of divine 
influences in general, that we are speaking. It is not of the 
ordinary presence, even of the Spirit of God. But it is of 
His mdwelling in the heart of the believer^ to supply to him the 
presence of Christ his Lord* And as, concerning the supply 
of that presence, we are dependent on his own assurances ; so 
also concerning the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, as the 
means of that supply, we are informed with certainty, only by 
the declarations of his word. In that word, this indwelling is 
promised as the special gift of Christ — it is recorded as actu- 
ally possessed by his people — it is spoken of as knowable by 
their inward consciousness — it is referred to as manifest to 
outward observation. 

That it is promised as the special gft of Christ it were almost 
unnecessary to remind you. For, from the earliest prophets 
down to our blessed Lord himself, this descent of the Holy 
Ghost into the hearts of his disciples, is held out as the spe- 
cific privilege, the distinctive blessing, of Christianity. The 
Spirit, in his ordinary character, as the communicated Deity, 
working in all things as the Lord of life, had from the first 
been recognized. He moved upon the face of the waters, as 
the source of physical life and light. He came to the sacred 
poets, and artificers, and heroes of old to be in them the source 
of mental life — the author of all the wisdom — the skill — the 
energy, which makes men great. He was breathed into the 
Saints of God as the source of moral and spiritual life— the 



THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 245 

power by which they knew God, served God, enjoyed the pre- 
sence of God. " He spake" especially " by the Prophets," as 
the Nicene Creed reminds us. And yet his communication in 
some more extensive and more peculiar manner, as the distinc- 
tive blessing of the times of the Messiah, — this formed the 
special theme of those very prophets themselves ; Ezek. xxxvi. 
27 ; this was proclaimed by the Baptist, as what should be 
afforded by Jesus to his followers ; Matt. iii. 1 1 ; this was held 
out by Jesus himself, as what those followers were to wait for 
after his departure ; John vii. 39 ; Acts i. 4 ; and with refer- 
ence to this — the descent (?• e.) of the Holy Ghost in this 
sense as the communicator to the soul of the believer of the 
presence of his ascended Lord — St. John expressly says that 
during the earthly life of Jesus, " the Spirit was not yet given 
because that Jesus was not yet glorified." John vii. 39. "I 
will pray the Father," he says himself, " and he shall give you 
another comforter, even the Spirit of truth, — and he shall be in 
you" " Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, 
but ye shall see me." " He that loveth me shall be loved of 
my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest w.yself to 
him.'' John xiv. 17, 19, 21. 

But this indwelling of Christ by his Spirit is, moreover, 
recorded in Scripture as actually possessed by his people. And 
it is- so recorded — say rather assumed — as a well understood 
fact, on the ground of which the Christian should exhibit m\ 
energy, a hope, a purity, which in himself he cannot find. 
By reference to this possession, St. Paul stirs up the courage 
of Timothy : " That good thing which was committed unto thee 
keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us." 2 Tim. i. 14. 
By this, he animates the hope of the Romans : " Ye have not 
received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have re- 
ceived the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father." 



246 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

Rom. viii. 15. And by this, he demands of the Corinthians a 
suitable purity : " What I know ye not that your body is the 
temple of the Holy Ghost, wJiich is in you, which ye have of 
God?" 1 Cor. vi. 19. 

Nor is this indwelling of the Holy Ghost represented as 
other than knowahle hy the believer's own interior consciousness. 
Knowable by his workings, though not sensible in himself. 
Even as the man of genius is conscious of the powers that lie 
deep within his mind ; and the man of wisdom rests serenely 
on the sense of his resources, without elation and without 
alarm; so has the man of God a deep yet calm conviction 
of the Power that dwells within him, and can feel that he 
is not alone and not unblessed. " There is a manifestation of 
the Spirit;" as St. Paul speaks (1 Cor. xii. 7); that is, an 
interior consciousness by which he manifests his indwelling ; 
a possession of such gifts of heavenly wisdom, peace, or 
power,' as testify of themselves their divine origin, and prove 
to us the presence of Him from whom they flow.* " The 
Spirit himself" says the same Apostle, to the Romans, (viii. 
1 6) " beareth witness along with our spirit ;" (that is, by the 
sense of God's presence, the consciousness of his love which 
he inspires in us,) " that we are the sons of God." How 
fully was this consciousness enjoyed, and with what sober 
majesty avowed, by St. Ignatius, when he replied to the re- 
proaches of the Emperor Trajan, " No one ought to call 
Theophorus after such a manner, for, having within me Christ, 
the heavenly King, I dissolve all the snares of the devils I " 
And when to the question. Who is Theophorus ? he rejoined, 
" He who has Christ in his bosom'' To which when the 
Emperor scoffingly answered " And dost thou then carry him 

* h (peivi^u<rt{ red -rvivficnTos' dona quibus Spiritus suani praeseniiam de- 
darat. Beza, in Pol. Syn. 



THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 247 

who was crucified within thee?" the calm assertion of the 
aged saint is simply, " Yes I do I for it is written, / will dwell 
in them and walk in them I " 

But once more. This indwelling of Christ by his Spirit in 
the hearts of his people, is referred to as sufficiently manifest 
to outward observation* Manifest, that is, by the appropriate 
words and deeds to which it prompts ; even as the human soul 
is manifest by its appropriate workings. Paul, for example, says 
to the Corinthians, (1 Cor. ii. 4) " My speech and my preach- 
ing was, not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in de- 
monstration of the Spirit, and of power;" i. e. such as evinced 
to you a superhuman source — were signs, as they were effects, 
of the divine energy within me. And so similarly he makes 
appeal to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. i. 4), reminding them 
that they had certainly been called by God himself, " for our 
gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and 
in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance ;" it was preached to 
you with all the signs of a divine conviction, boldness, and 
energy in the Messengers thereof, " even as ye know what 
manner of men we were among you." And the same Apostle 
exhorts the Corinthians so to exercise in their assemblies their 
nobler and more edifying gifts that, " if one that believeth 
not, or is unlearned, come in, the secrets of his heart may be 
made manifest, and falling down on his face, he may worship 
God, and report that God is in you of a truth." 1 Cor. xiv. 
24, 25. 

And let us not close this chapter, then, without the per- 
sonal inquiry^ Have I this indwelling of the Spirit ? Christ, 
when he promises it, indicates two essential conditions of its 
possession : — *' If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I 
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Com- 



248 THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

forter, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, 
because it seeth him not., neither knoweth him'' John xiv. 
15 — 17. You need, you see, in order to the experience of 
this Office of the Holy Ghost in your soul, that Faithy by 
which its possessor is distinguished from the world ; and that 
loving Obedience by which he keeps very close to Him in 
whom he believes. The promise is manifestly not to a body 
of men, but to a class of minds. The communication of the 
Holy Ghost to dwell in a follower of Christ, is limited by 
conditions which do not apply to the outward presence and 
teaching even of the Saviour himself. All the Apostles Jesus 
could be with. To all, even to Judas, he could teach the 
truths of God. All he could use for his messengers, and em- 
ploy externally in his work. But not to all does he promise 
that he will be in them. It is only such as are united to him 
by a living and loving faith, that he can actuate by his in- 
dwelling Spirit, and use as his agents to carry on his work. 
John XV. 1 — 8. Men may belong to Christ and yet not 
possess the Spirit of Christ. The Romans are saluted as 
" beloved of God, called to be saints, the called of Jesus 
Christ ;" and yet it is said to them, " If any man have not the 
Spirit of Christy he is none of his I " The Corinthians are 
addressed as " the church of God, sanctified in Christ Jesus, 
called to be saints," and yet they are warned that " the natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they 
are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because 
they are spiritually discerned." Nay and they are expressly 
told, " I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, 
but as unto carnal;— for whereas there is among you envying 
and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ?" 
And hence then, I repeat, how needful the inquiry, Have / 
individually this indwelling of the Spirit? Is his office of 
Communicator of Christ's presence fulfilled in me ? I must 



THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 249 

not take it for granted ; I must examine into it. I must not 
assume it ; I must have good proofs of it. And what are good 
proofs of it but just those " holy desires, good counsels, and 
just works " which flow from such indwelling ; the sentiments 
which we cherish — the dispositions which we exercise — the 
character which we exhibit to the world ? Remember that 
the Spirit, as dwelling in the heart of the believer, is very 
rarely spoken o^ absolutely/ ; but most generally with a genitive 
added^ expressive of the particular disposition, by which he 
manifests his presence. He is in us, if in us at allj as the 
Spirit of adoption, i. e. of childlike freedom towards our 
heavenly Father — as the Spirit of wisdom, i, e. of insight into 
spiritual truth— as the Spirit of meekness— SiS the Spirit of 
love — as the Spirit of faith — as the Spirit of hope— ahove all, 
and including all, as the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. i. 19); 
working in us the same mind which was in him ; and making 
us as he was in this world. Take then these epithets in all 
their extent ; and examine yourself, by these not obscure and 
mystical but most intelligible signs, what spirit you are 
of. " Hereby know we that we dwell in God, and God in 
us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." " And hereby 
we know that Christ abideth in us, ^y the Spirit which he hath 
given us," 



250 



CHAPTER III. 

THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 
THE CHURCH, THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIt's OPERATION. 

Having now considered the Nature, and the Office, of the 
Holy Ghost, the third particular to which our Creed directs 
us is his Work ; — the grace and power which he exercises in 
the fulfilment of the Office assigned to him, as the Manifester 
of Christ to the hearts of his people. 

For the remaining articles of the Apostles' Creed, bring 
before us topics, not distinct and separable from that of the 
Holy Ghost, but intimately and essentially connected with His 
Office ; and declare, in fact, the chief particulars of the Work 
which in fulfilment of that Office he executes. In the article 
" the Holy Catholic Church" we have indicated to us the sphere 
in which the Holy Ghost carries on his work ; and in the 
articles, " the Communion of Saints ; the Forgiveness of 
Sins ; and the Resurrection of the body to life everlasting," 
we have the topics which excite those three fundamental dis- 
positions of Love, and Faith, and Hope, in forming and sus- 
taining which, that work itself consists. 

We enter, in this Chapter, on the consideration of The 
Sphere in which the Holy Ghost carries on his Work as the 
Vicegerent of Christ. This is declared to us in the article, 
" The Holy Catholic Church." 

For by " the Church" is meant the aggregate sum of those 
who have been called out from the darkness of Heathenism, 



THE CHURCH^ THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIt's OPERATION. 231 

and the dimness of Judaism, to constitute the body of Christ, 
in which he, by his Spirit, dwells and works. " God hath 
given him" says St. Paul, " to be head over all things to the 
church, which is Ms body, the fulness of him that filleth all in 
all." Eph. i. 22, 23. And this church, therefore, forms the 
sphere of the Spirit's operation as the representative, and com- 
municator of the presence and life of Christ. It is as the 
body which he animates ; (1 Cor. xii) — as the temple in which 
he dwells. " There is one body, and one Spirit.'' Eph. iv. 4. 
And again, " The house of God, which is the church of the 
living God." 1 Tim. iii. 15. And again, " Know ye not that 
ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth 
in you?"" 1 Cor. iii. 16. In both which latter passages the 
allusion is plain to the presence of God amongst his people 
Israel by means of the mystic glory which dwelt between the 
cherubim in the Temple, and consecrated it as the Palace of 
the Most High. " It came to pass" says the sacred chro- 
nicler (2 Chron. v. 13, 14) " when they lifted up their voice 
and praised the Lord, that then the house was tilled with a 
cloud," (that bright cloud, namely, of roseate splendour which 
had hovered over the tabernacle in the wilderness^ as the sym- 
bol of God's presence ; and which was seen again by the dis- 
ciples at the transfiguration of their Lord, when " a bright 
cloud overshadowed him ;" and which, therefore, is so fre- 
quently called " the glory" or splendour " of the Lord") — 
" even the house of the Lord. So that the priests could not 
stand to minister by reason of the cloud;" (its dazzling bril- 
liancy) " for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of 
God." 

Now, what the Temple was to Jehovah, that is the Chris- 
tian Church to the Son of God. It is the sacred sphere in 
which he manifests his presence. And what that divine glory 
was to the Temple, that is the Holy Ghost to the Church — 



252 THE CHURCH, 

the mystic medium through which that presence is diffused 
throughout the spiritual house of God. "Ye" says St. Paul 
to the Ephesians, " are of the household of God ; and are 
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ; in whom all 
the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy 
temple in the Lord ; in whom ye also are builded together 
for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Eph. ii. 
19—22. 

The Sphere, then, of the Holy Ghost's operations, is the 
whole body of the elect people of God, " the sanctified by God 
the Father, and saved in Christ Jesus, and called," considered 
as the spiritual temple of the Lord ; the body of Christ ; the 
congregation of his redeemed. And hence it is called his 
" Church;" or body of" called ones," consecrated to himself. 
Such a " church," Jesus himself designed and provided for, 
while on earth. Such a " church," was formed by his Apostles 
in Jerusalem. Such a " church" was subsequently organized 
in each of the several cities where believers were added to the 
Lord. And the aggregate or sum of all such " churches," 
beginning with the one at Jerusalem, and afterwards spread 
over the face of the earth, is what we commemorate in our 
Creed as " the holy, catholic, Church ; " and in our Liturgy as 
" the holy church universal;" and in our Communion service 
as " the mystical body of God's Son, which is the blessed com-' 
pany of all faithful people." 

Let us give attention to these particulars in detail. 

The doctrine which they include may be reduced to the fol- 
lowing propositions : 

First, That our blessed Lord not only called to himself dis- 
ciples ; but he designed that they should constitute, on his de- 
parture, a distinct and organized community of men. 

Secondly, That such a community was, accordingly, actually 



THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIT's OPERATION. 253 

formed by the Apostles, in Jerusalem, under their jurisdic- 
tion. 

Thirdly, That as the Gospel spread throughout Judsea, and 
into other lands, other communities were formed on the same 
principles, and for the same ends. 

Fourthly, That the aggregate or sum of such communities 
of professing Christians, contemplated abstractedly as an ideal 
whole, under the presidency of Jesus as its Head, is called in 
Scripture " The Church," and in the Apostle's Creed " The 
Catholic," (or universal) " Church." 

Fifthly, That the end for which our Lord designed the ex- 
istence of these Communities, called, as an ideal whole, his 
Church, was the more effectual communication of Himself, by 
his Spirit, to all the members of the same. Or, as our Cate- 
chism phrases it, v/as, " the sanctifying all the elect people of 
God." With reference to which end, as well as to the sacred 
relation of this community to its unseen Lord, this body is 
called " the holy Catholic Church." 

First, then, I would show you. That our blessed Lord 7iot 
only called to himself disciples ; hut designed that they should 
constitute^ on his dejoarture, a distinct, organized, community of 
men. 

For Jesus came to be not merely a Teacher of religious 
principles, but the Head and Ruler of a religious people. Not 
merely to throw out fundamental truths, but to collect a body 
of lovers of truth. Not merely to die for the reconciliation of 
the world, but to consecrate those who should embrace this 
reconciliation as a people holy to the Lord. The prophets 
who speak of the Messiah exhibit him not merely as a Prophet, 
to teach — no, nor as a Priest, to make atonement — but as a 
King, to govern, guide, and discipline. And in exact accord- 
ance with these predictions we find Jesus, from the first, col- 



254 THE CHURCH, 

lecting followers, who by baptism were separated off and con- 
secrated to himself (John iii. 22, 26 : iv. 1); nay, and so- 
lemnly affirming, as in the case of Nicodemus, that it was not 
enough for any one to receive the truths he taught ; and ac- 
knowledge generally that he was " a teacher come from God ; " 
but that unless he were " born of water as well as of the 
Spirit," came out openly and joined himself, by public dedica- 
tion, to the little band of his avowed disciples, " he could not 
enter into the kingdom of God." John iii. 5. And such a 
band of men, thus marked out and distinguished as a special 
body of followers, he calls his "flock" (Luke xii. 32); and 
cheers them by denominating himself their " Shepherd ;" i. e. 
their Head and Ruler (John 10, 11); and by declaring that 
" other sheep he has which are not of this fold, and them also 
he must bring, and they shall hear his voice, and there shall 
be 07ie fold under one Shepherd^ John x. 16. 

Nor is this unity, which Jesus intimates by this figure, 
merely that of mind and heart. It is manifestly one of exter- 
nally acknowledged brotherhood ; as a connected whole, whose 
character could be observed and appreciated by the world 
around. For what is His parting prayer for his disciples, thus 
collected into union with him ? " Neither pray I for these 
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through 
their word ; that the^ all ynay he one ; as thou, Father, art in 
me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us ; that the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me.'' John xvii. 20, 21. Ob- 
serve, there was to be among his followers a unity so out- 
wardly manifested, that the world should mark this body as a 
distinct community, visibly differenced from themselves, and 
from their spirit and conduct should be led to recognize the 
divine Authority and Mission of their unseen Head. Even as 
Jesus intimates in another place, when he compares his fol- 
lowers not merely to salt which was to diffuse its purifying 



THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIt's OPERATION. 255 

freshness through the earth, but to " a city set upon a hill, 
which cannot be hid^ Matt. v. 14. 

Nor is this all. Our Lord contemplates his disciples, not 
only as publicly consecrated to his service ; and manifestly 
distinguished from the world around them ; but as acting in 
concert, as an organized community, with reference to their 
own internal affairs. Their disputes among themselves were 
to be settled, when private means had failed, not by appeal to 
the Jewish, or heathen, courts of justice, but hy reference to 
their brethren, assembled as a body ; and as a body arbitrating 
on the cause proposed to them ; which arbitration made by the 
Community, has the promise of Christ's presence, and Christ's 
ratification, as the efficient, though invisible, head thereof. 
" If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his 
fault between thee and him alone ; if he shall hear thee, thou 
hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then 
take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two 
or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he 
shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church; "* the 
general assembly of the brethren as a body ; " and verily I say 
unto you, whatsoever ye" (thus acting as a body) " shall bind 

* We see here the intention of Jesus, that his churches should form them- 
selves after the pattern of the Jewish Synagogues. For before those assem- 
blies were brought charges of thefts, and other petty offences, and according to 
their arbitration disputes were decided. See Home, iii. 246, and Lightfoot, in 
loc. The object of Jesus, in directing these three stages of proceeding, 1 ) 
private remonstrance ; 2) social discussion ; and 3) public appeal ; is obviously 
to prevent an injured person from judging and acting according to the impulse 
of his own excited feelings. The sensations of the individual are subjected to 
the common sense of the community. St. Paul censures the Corinthians for 
not fulfilling these injunctions of the Lord, and settling their differences by the 
arbitration of the church. 1 Cor. vi. 1 — 5. The whole constitution of the 
Christian Communities was evidently modelled, not after the Levitical 'polity, 
but after tlie Synagogue ; which very word St. James uses for a Christian as- 
sembly. Jam. ii. 2. See Riddlf., Christ. Antiq. 139. 



256 THE CHURCH, 

on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall 
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" — your decision on 
the points submitted to you shall have the force of my autho- 
rity ; — for " where even two or three are gathered together in 
my name," that is, as my disciples, as constituting a body of 
which I am the head, to deliberate and decide according to 
my will, "there am I in the midst of them." Matt, xviii. 
15—25. 

And therefore, further, for this flock thus contemplated as a 
distinct and organized community, our Lord provided, even iii 
his life-time, authorized Riders, as his representatives, who 
should be as it were the managing Directors of the Society, and 
the executive of his will therein. For he chose out his twelve 
Apostles, not merely to be the repositories of his principles, and 
as stewards to dispense them to their brethren, and through the 
world ; (Matt. xiii. 51;, 52) but also to be the governors of those 
who by their preaching should be collected into the Society of 
Christ. This he intimates to them when he says, " Who then 
is that faithful and wise servant v/hom his Lord hath made 
ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season ? " 
Matt. xxiv. 45. The responsibility resulting from this he 
warns them of, in the parable of the talents ; which are en- 
trusted to the bod^ servants of the household. Matt. xxv. 
14 — 29. And for this he solemnly ordains and qualifies them, 
when he says, after his resurrection, " Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 
them ; and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained." 
John XX. 22, 23. 

But again. Lest these appointed Rulers should be tempted 
to consider themselves lords over God's heritage, and forget 
that Jesus only is the proper Head of his Society, their Master, 
in another place, forbids their assumption of a personal autho- 
rity over their brethren, and reserves most jealously the Su- 



THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIt's OPERATION. 257 

preme control to Himself alone. " Be not ye called Rabbi ;" 
he says, '• for one is your Master, even Christ ; and all ye are 
brethren. Neither be ye called Masters, for one is your 
Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest amongst you 
shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself 
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be ex- 
alted," Matt, xxiii. 8 — 12. And further, to remind them 
that all they teach and do in this capacity has authority only 
so far as they speak and act in the name, and by the Spirit, of 
their Master, he assures them that only as they " abide in him 
and his words abide in them' can they fulfil their office with 
success. " I am the vine, ye are the branches : he that 
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing'' John xv. 5. Nay, 
and the very passage which intimates the authority thus dele- 
gated to these Apostles, has appended to it a most awful warn- 
ing against the abuse, by personal assumptions, of that autho- 
rity. " But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My 
Lord delayeth his coming ; and shall begin to smite his fellow- 
servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken ; the Lord of 
that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, 
and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him. 
asunder^ and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites ! 
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth !" Matt. xxiv. 
48— .51. 

Yet further. You will find that to such a Community, thus 
collected together, organized, and officered, but still kept under 
the exclusive supremacy of the Lord himself, Jesus promises, 
not substantiality merely, and visibility, but also permanency ; 
— a permanency which should endure when the individual mem- 
bers of which it was in that first age composed, should have 
passed away; an historical existence, therefore, like that of a 
state and nation, which, while its comxponent parts are con- 



258 THE CHURCH, 

stantly changing, remains, as to its social constitution, from 
age to age, the same. For this is the meaning of that promise 
to St. Peter; (Matt. xvi. 18) ''I say also unto thee, thou art 
Peter, and on this rock I will build my churchy and the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it.'' That is, the Community 
which I will found through your preaching, on the day of Pen- 
tecost, shall stand amidst the lapse of ages, unshaken by the 
ravages which Death shall make on its particular, successive, 
members. To ratify which promise, and to provide for its 
fulfilment, the Lord vouchsafes his parting assurance, " I 
am with you alway, even to the end of the world I " Matt, 
xxviii. 20. 

And consequently, as the last particular essential to a 
society so constituted to endure through successive genera- 
tions of mankind, our Lord distinctly provided and enjoined 
specific, public, solemn, ordinances; — ^the one, of admission 
into fellowship with this Community, by which the number 
of its members might be, as it were, recruited from time to 
time; and the other of Social Union and Communion, by 
which the relation of those members to each other and to their 
invisible Head, might be kept up. " Go ye," he said, " and 
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Matt, 
xxviii. 19. " This bread" he declared at his last Supper, " is 
my body which is given for you : this do in remembrance of 
me." And again, " This cup is the new testament in my 
blood, which is shed for you" (Luke xxii. 19, 20); substi- 
tuting thereby, for the paschal festival, which commemorated 
God's entering into covenant with his ancient people, and con- 
stituting them a ransomed, free, and sacred nation, the me- 
morial of a new covenant ratified by his death, by which God 
constituted the disciples of his Son a new nation of redeemed 
ones, a people holy to the Lord. 



THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIT S OPERATION. 



259 



See then how carefully your Lord has kept in view not only 
the salvation of the individual soul, but the formation of a dis- 
tinct community of men, in which, and by means of which, 
this salvation of the individual should be carried on. Personal 
religion, secret piety, you cannot, it is true, too highly prize. 
But personal religion, secret piety, is not the whole of that to 
which you are called. Yea rather, personal religion cannot 
unfold itself but in the social sphere ; and secret piety must be 
stinted^ dwarfed, imperfect, and unshapely in its growth, with- 
out the sympathies, the helps, the exercises, the manifold 
influences of public union and communion with our fellow 
Christians, as joint members of one body, under one exalted 
Head. " No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to him- 
self." As surely as Christ has called you into living union 
with himself, he has called you into living union with his 
people — and for those people, their purity, their holiness, their 
prosperity, their multiplication, he would have you to be zeal- 
ous even as you are zealous for your own soul. " For as the 
body is one though it hath many members, and all the mem- 
bers of that one body, though many, are one body, so also is 
Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one 
body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or 
free ; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit — that 
there should be no schism in the body ; but that the members 
should have the same care one for another ; and whether one 
member suffer, all the members may suffer with it ; or one 
member be honoured, all the members may rejoice with it." 
1 Cor. xii. 

And now then let us pass on to the second proposition : 
which is this : That such a com.rnunity as our Lord designed, 
was accordingly^ actually formed by the Apostles in Jerusalem, 

The Idea which their Lord had unveiled to them, they kept 



260 THE CHURCH, 

before their eyes, and sought to realize in act. Immediately 
on their recovery from the stupor into which his unexpected 
death had thrown them, we find the disciples " assembling to- 
gether " as a little band of brethren, and Jesus himself honour- 
ing their " church" or fraternal assembly, by coming into the 
midst of them and saying, '^ Peace be unto you !" John xx. 1 9. 
After his ascension, again, you see the disciples " continuing 
with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, 
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren," Acts 
i. 14. And you read moreover of their exercising, as such 
a body, not merely devotional fellowship, but the important 
functions of self-organization. For in those days Peter stood . 
up in the midst of the disciples, (their number was about an 
hundred and twenty) and having announced the defection and 
death of Judas, proposed to them the filling up his place in the 
Society, and the appointing from among their number one to 
take part of that ministry and apostleship which Jesus had en- 
trusted to his personal friends and followers ; the testifying, 
namely, to his resurrection. Which therefore, they, with spe- 
cial prayer to the Lord himself, as their only Head, invisibly 
among them, and directing their decisions, did. And thus 
Matthias was elected into the number of the special witnesses 
of Jesus, and " was numbered with the eleven Apostles." 
Here are all the elements of a community, distinct, united, de- 
liberative, self-organizing, according to the design of Christ. 

But further, they failed not to exercise in this community 
the power conceded to them by their Lord (John xx. 23) of 
remitting sins; that is, of receiving into the number of "the 
saved ones " whose sins are blotted out by the blood of Christ, 
those whom they judged to be truly penitent, and in earnest to 
save themselves from the world around them. For when the 
day of Pentecost was come, and they received the promised 
Spirit, who descended on them when they were " all with one 



THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIt's OPERATION. 261 

accord in cue place," to fulfil to them his great office as 
the Life- communicator to the body of Christ, — and when by 
the energy of that Spirit they had proclaimed their Master's 
glory, and become the instruments thereby of pricking many 
to the heart, what is the very first direction that St. Peter 
gives to the awakened multitude when they cried out saying, 
Men and brethren, what shall we do ? " Repent, and be bap- 
tized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, /or the re' 
mission of sins." Not only, " Repent," observe, which was 
needful for their personal deliverance from the impending 
wrath; but, " Repent and be baptized" — unite yourselves by a 
solemn, public, ordinance to our Society ; take the sacramental 
oath of enlistment in our little band of followers of Jesus ; and 
thus distinguishing yourselves from the untoward generation 
round you, step into the sacred sphere of God's own " saved 
ones/' wherein there is remission of sins, by the blood of 
Christ, and peace, and joy, and hope through the gift of the 
Holy Ghost. "And they that gladly received the word were 
baptized ; and the same day there were added to them," i. e, to 
the Community of Christians already organized, " about three 
thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the Apos- 
tles' doctrine SiXidi fellowship" — not doctrine, merely, feeding on 
the truths they taught ; but also fellowship, acting as lively 
members of the community over which they ruled — " and in 
breaking of bread and in prayers" — in the participation, with 
that community, of those social meals of brotherly affection at 
which the whole body of the faithful gratefully commemorated 
the death and passion of their Head. Here, then, are all the 
elements of those sacramental distinctions by which the en- 
trance into, and continuance with, the brotherhood of Christ 
were both effected and proclaimed. 

Nor is this all. If you go on through the notices which St. 
Luke has preserved to us, of this first church, the Apostolic 



262 THE CHURCH, 

church, at Jerusalem, you will find it exercising all the func- 
tions which belong to an organized religious Society, and both 
cherishing the inspirations, exhibiting the graces, submitting to 
the authority, and diffusing abroad the presence and power, of 
that Spirit of God, who in the midst of that Society, as in his 
proper sphere of operation, vouchsafed to dwell. 

How they cherished his inspirations by social, common, 
prayer I When the Apostles had been dismissed with threats 
from the Council, what was their refuge? whence did they 
seek for consolation and strength ? " Being let go, they went 
to their own company^ and reported all that the chief priests 
and elders had said unto them." They felt they were not 
isolated believers — they were constituent elements of a body, 
the members of which cared for each other, and in the assem- 
blies of which the Holy Ghost was promised to dwell with a 
light and life, far beyond his manifestations to the solitary 
soul ; and therefore to this body they took their way, and with 
this body sought for grace and power from above. Nor did 
this body fail to sympathize with their difficulty and their dan- 
ger. " When they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God 
with one accord" — they reminded him of his promises to his 
people assembled in his name — and they implored that he 
would grant to his servants — (how touching that intercessory 
supplication for their leaders who had stepped out foremost in 
the battle!) — "that with all boldness they might speak his 
word ! " And what was the result ? The Holy Ghost was 
present in his sanctuary, and he wrought his work. " When 
they had prayed, the place was shaken where they had assem- 
bled together ; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and they spake the word of God with boldness ! " Acts iv. 23 
—31. 

Then, how they exhibited the graces of the Holy Ghost, in 
all the forms of brotherly affection and good will. The Holy 



THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIt's OPERATION. 263 

Ghost is the Spirit of love — of community of feeling — of look- 
ing not at our own interests, but at the interests of others. 
And by this we know that Christ dwelleth in us, if this Spirit 
be given to us. And how fully was this Spirit displayed in 
that first church ! " All that believed were together, and had 
all things common ; and sold their possessions and goods, and 
parted them to all men as every man had need." Acts ii. 44, 

45. And again, " The multitude of them that believed were 
of one heart and of one soul ; neither said any of them that 
aught of the things which they possessed was their own, but 
they had all things common." Acts iv. 32. What a thorough 
realization of the Lord's own design, his own most earnest 
prayer, for the community of his disciples ! — " that they all 
may be one ; as thou Father, art in me and I in thee, that they 
also may be one in us : that the world may believe that thou 
hast sent me I" And what a fulfilment therewith of that fur- 
ther end for which he ordained his church, and which he in 
that last sentence prays for, the bearing witness to him in the 
world ; the shining as a light upon the earth to shed abroad in 
it the radiance of his glory. " They, continuing daily with 
one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to 
house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 
praising God, and having favour with all the people" Acts ii. 

46, 47. 

Nor are we less struck with the submission of this primitive 
community to the authority of the Holy Ghost. For that 
Awful Being is a Spirit of Order as well as love, of power as 
well as grace. And but a short time elapsed before it was 
seen how needful was the discipline which the Lord intended 
should be exercised in his church ; how awful was the autho- 
rity which he had devolved on his Apostles as its rulers when 
he empowered them " to bind and loose ;" to establish in it 
regulations of permission and of prohibition, and to maintain 



264 THE CHURCH, 

its sanctity by a salutary rigour. You come next to the 
awful story of Ananias and Sapphira; — you find that with 
reference to the " having all things common" there w^as no 
rule imposed ; that each might give or might retain the 
whole or any part of his possessions as he was disposed in his 
heart ; — but that these two individuals, from an ostentatious 
hypocrisy, professed a liberality which they had not exerted, 
and sought to deceive the church of God. Then is it seen that 
the Holy Ghost is truly ruling in that church as the Vice- 
gerent of Christ. Then does the Apostle of the Lord accuse 
the guilty pair before the brethren, as " having agreed toge- 
ther to tempt the Spirit of the LordT Then does he charge 
them, " Ye have not lied unto men, but unto God ! " And 
his words have power — his sentence is confirmed by the divine 
will — the sins that he retains, they are retained, — what he 
binds on earth is bound in heaven, — " they fell down and 
gave up the ghost ! " " And ^reat fear came upon all the 
church"— -i^Q presence of the Spirit among them was reve- 
rently recognized' — the exercise of the discipline they needed 
was devoutly submitted to — they felt that they were, not only 
a community, but a community under the awful presidency of 
the Holy Ghost. 

Yet not less manifest is their affectionate zeal than their 
obedient awe — their efi"orts for the edification, than their sub- 
mission to the discipline, of the church of Christ. Observe, 
once more, their diligence to diffuse abroad the presence and 
power of the Holy Ghost, both among themselves, and far 
beyond the confines of their community. There soon arise, as 
the body becomes enlarged^, practical difficulties of administra- 
tion. The Apostles are unequal to the task of regulating 
the affairs of the complex society. And what therefore do 
they do ? They call on that society to exercise its function of 
self-regulation, and select for them assistants in their work. 



THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIt's OPERATION. 265 

" "When the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose 
a murmuring among the Grecians" (the converts from among 
the Hellenistic Jews) " against the Hebrews ; because their 
widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the 
twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It 
is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve 
tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men 
of honest report, /z^// of the Holy Ghost, and wisdom, whom we 
may appoint over this business. And the saying pleased the 
whole multitude, ' and they chose the seven deacons,' whom they 
set before the Apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid 
their hands on them." What more thorough organization, what 
more palpable marks of a living church, animated by a life- 
giving Spirit, can we find than here ? It is ready for each 
emergency as it arises — it enlarges its means of edification 
according to its necessities — it modifies its constitution accord- 
ing to its circumstances — it has not yet become petrified into a 
lifeless rigidity which does but preserve the lineaments of the 
past ; it is still breathing with a vital energy which takes its 
outward form and pressure from the present. The Holy 
Ghost is there. He is in the centre of the assembled dis- 
ciples. He is in the heart of the individuals who compose 
thatj assembly. And men full of the Holy Ghost and of wis- 
dom are found, and chosen, and set apart. And thus the 
Church is not only edified but enlarged — the Spirit of God is 
breathed with fuller vigour not only through the members of 
the sacred body, but forth into the wastes of the unconverted 
world. " The word of God increased ; and the number of 
the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly ; and a great com- 
pany of the priests were obedient unto the faith." Acts vi. 
1—7. 

Such was the primitive, Ap^bstdlic Church ; — the Sphere of 



266 THE CHURCH, 

operation of the Holy Ghost. O that we did not seem, in 
all this, to be painting a fancy picture, rather than portraying 
the features of what was designed to be, what actually was, 
the constitution and endowments of the first community of 
Christ's people ! But why should this seem strange to us ? 
What is there in our modern relations to prevent our acting 
out the principles, at least, with w^hatever difference of form, 
which wrought so effectually in that first community ? True, 
we have no longer Apostles for rulers — inspiration for guid- 
ance — miraculous power for discipline ; true, we are not a little 
band collected in a single locality, and easily known to each 
other ; true, we have not the first fresh impulses of the Spirit 
of truth, and earnestness, and love in all our members ; and 
all these differences must greatly modify the application of this 
first example of a Christian Church to ourselves. But still 
the Idea remains to be worked out by us. The essential ele- 
ments of its constitution should be also the elements of ours. 
Nay, and they are so. In our own particular community, the 
Church of England, they are so. And we have only to, real- 
ize her principles and be animated by her spirit, to approximate 
very closely to that Apostolic pattern. 

For, is one feature of that community its spirit of social 
piety and common prayer ? We have provided for us a pub- 
lic liturgy, which the happy experience of many who use it 
w'ill testify to be indeed a blessed means of becoming " filled 
with the Holy Ghost." 

Are solemn rites of initiation into, and communion with, the 
brethren in Christ, essential elements of a church? These 
too, and just the same which Christ himself appointed, are 
furnished us in Holy Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. 

Were brotherly love, and charity, so remarkable in that 
primitive community ? Our Church also has made it an inte- 
gral portion of her Eucharistic service that we should minister 



THE SPHERE OF THE SPIRIt's OPERATION. 267 

to the necessities of the saints, that distribution may be made 
to all men according to their need. 

And is church order and ministerial authority a plain mark 
of the Apostolic constitution ? This too is provided for us by 
the ordination of sacred officers as spiritual Guides and Rulers 
of the flock ; and the entrusting to them the presidency in our 
public assemblies. 

While, on the other hand, do you see in the first Church, at 
Jerusalem, the zealous co-operation of all, according to their 
gifts and opportunities, for the edification and enlargement of 
the body of which they were essential living members ? We 
too are taught in our Homily for Whit Sunday that " the Holy 
Ghost openeth the mouth to declare the mighty works of God, 
engendereth a burning zeal towards God's word, and giveth 
ALL MEN a tongue, yea and a fiery tongue, so that they may 
boldly and cheerfully profess the truth in the face of the whole 
world." We too are bid to pray, in our collect for Good Fri- 
day, "for all estates of men in Christ's holy church, that every 
member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly 
and godly serve him." And we, too, are encouraged to ask in 
our collect for St. Barnabas' day, " O Lord, who didst endue 
the Apostle Barnabas with singular gfts of the Holy Ghost, 
leave us not, we beseech thee, destitute of thy manifold gifts, 
nor yet of grace to use them always to thy honour and 
glory!" 



n2 



268 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 

The office of the Holy Ghost is to supply the place and 
presence of Christ himself to his disciples. And consequently 
the sphere in which he executes this office, — that is, the 
sphere of the Holy Ghost's operations — must comprehend all 
the followers of Christ, in every place, and through every age. 
And it is just this sphere, comprising all the followers of Christ 
in every place, and through every age, which, looked upon as 
an ideal whole, is called in the Creed " The Holy Catholic 
Church." 

Now, in seeking to develope the conceptions contained in 
this denomination of the sphere of the Holy Ghosf s opera- 
tions, we have seen — 

First, that our blessed Lord not only called to himself dis- 
ciples, but designed that they should constitute, on his depar- 
ture, a distinct and organized Community. 

And Secondly, That such a Community was, accordingly, 
actually formed by the Apostles, in Jerusalem, under their 
jurisdiction. 

The next step in our present investigation, to which I call 
your attention is this : — 

Thirdly, that as the Gospel spread throughout Judcea, and 
into other lands, other Comrrmnities were formed on the same 
principles, and for the same ends. 

All that we have hitherto said has been not concerning The 



THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 269 

Church, as the universal family of Christ's people, but only 
concerning A Church — a particular society of converts, living 
together, and maintaining personal intercourse with each other, 
in a particular spot. Jesus designed that those who followed 
him during his lifetime (and that, apparently, not steadily, as 
a constant body of attendants, but only as occasion served) 
should, after his departure, come together, and enter into close 
relation with each other as one body, under the superintendence 
of those Eleven more intimate friends, to whom he had spe- 
cially explained his doctrine, and whom he had specially com- 
missioned to spread that doctrine among their fellow-men. 
And accordingly, those Apostles being assembled together, 
with their Master, just before his ascension, he commanded 
them " that they should not depart from Jerusalem" — not 
scatter themselves abroad again, returning to their private 
homes and occupations, in Galilee, and elsewhere, — " but wait 
for the promise of t?ie Father, which, saith he, ye have heard 
of me." Acts i, 4. And to these men, thus forming the 
nucleus of an organized body of believers, there were soon 
united others of the personal followers of Jesus, " the women, 
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren;" and these 
together constituted A Church — the first Community of Chris- 
tians — the particular Church, which, swelled as it was by a 
vast influx of converts from the day of Pentecost onward, is 
called specifically by the sacred historian, " The Church which 
was at Jerusalem" Acts viii. 1. Here was a primary instance 
and specimen of the sort of society into which Jesus designed 
his disciples to form themselves, in order to the nourishment 
and the diffusion of the spirit of piety — the seeking for them- 
selves and the communicating to others that indwelling of the 
Holy Ghost, which their Lord had promised as the substitute 
for his personal teaching and care. 

And such a communication to others of this blessed Spirit soon 



270 THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 

takes place. A communication, remember, which led, not 
merely to the enlargement of the particular Church at Je- 
rusalem, but to the formation of new churches in other places^ 
on the same principles, and for the same ends. For not only, 
through the signs and wonders exhibited by the Apostles, and 
through the preaching of the word of God, were " believers 
the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and 
women" (Acts v. 14), " and the number of the disciples mul- 
tiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the 
priests were obedient to the faith" (Acts vi. 7), but it pleased 
God by his co-operating providence to scatter the seeds 
which had been thus copiously gathered into this first granary 
of the Lord, that they might fall upon and fructify other 
places in other lands. There soon arose " a great persecution 
against the Church which was at Jerusalem ;" and this persecu- 
tion, while it disturbed, and almost broke up, that particular 
community, was made the occasion of giving rise to other 
communities like it ; and producing, instead of one church, 
many churches in the earth. " They were all scattered 
abroad," says St. Luke, " throughout the regions of Judsea 
and Samaria, except the Apostles ;" " and they that were 
scattered abroad went every where preaching the word" 
Acts viii. 1 , 4. And in this way, if you go through the nar- 
rative from the 8th to the 15th chapter of the Acts, you will 
find that there were founded other churches distinct from that 
of Jerusalem, though in communication with it. For first, 
you read that in the city of Samaria, when Philip the deacon 
had *' preached the things concerning the kingdom of God, 
and the name of Jesus Christ, they that believed were baptized, 
both men and women.'' Acts viii. 12. And then, that the 
same Philip, passing through the land of Judsea " preached in 
all the cities till he came to Cesarean Acts viii. 40. Next 



THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 



271 



you find that when Saul went to Damascus there were disciples 
there, " with whom," that is, in whose company as a religious 
society, " he tarried certain days." Acts ix. 19. And when 
you come down to the 31st verse of chapter ix. you find St. 
Luke speaking very largely of " The Churches throughout all 
Judcea and Galilee, and Samaria," which " were edified,'' i. e. 
built up, consolidated, organized,* " and walking in the fear 
of the Lord, and in the com/art of the Holi/ Ghost, were mul- 
tiplied ;" that is, exercising themselves in the worship and 
obedience of God, and being animated by the teaching and 
exhortations of their spiritual teachers, both enjoyed for 
themselves and diffused abroad to others, the life-giving power 
of the Holy Ghost; so that they made additions, each to its 
own particidar body, in its own particular place, of new 
members gathered from the world around them. So again, 
yet further on (Acts xi. 19), you find that " they which were 
scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about 
Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch " 
(far beyond the confines of Judea) " preaching the word ;" 
though at first to none but Jews only. But soon these zealous 
missionaries spread the word of the Lord beyond the bounds 
not only of Judea, but of Judaism, and there was formed, 
through their independent instrumentality, the first Church, or 
Community of Christian converts, from the Gentile world.\ 

* 0]7(,oho(jbov^ivDi.r Cf. 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5 : " To whom coming, as unto a living 
stone, ye also, as lively stones, are built up, (oUo^af^iTa-^i) a spiritual house." 

f How important is the remark of Neander on this event ! " Thus were 
they the means of actualizing what the enlightened Stephen had already re- 
cognized as a fundamental principle ; the grand Idea, to which he (mainly) 
became a martyr. But now that in this way, altogether independently of the 
Apostles in Judcea, and of the developement of Christianity according to the 
Jewish type, churches were formed of purely hellenistic materials, which freed 
themselves entirely from Judaism ; — and still more when Paul came forward. 



272 THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 

" For some of them" continues St. Luke, v. 20, 21, " were 
men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to 
Antioch, spoke unto the Grecians" the Gentiles,* " preaching 
the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them ; 
and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord." 
And then Barnabas was sent down to them from " the church 
which was in Jerusalem" (as St. Luke again denominates the 
first Christian Society v. 22) ; and afterwards he sought for 
Saul and brought him to Antioch ; " and it came to pass that a 
whole year they assembled themselves with the church,'' in that 
place, " and taught much people." Which church at Antioch, 
thus organized, in addition to the Church at Jerusalem, 
became itself, like that original Community, an administrator 
of its own discipline, and the centre of its own operations ; as you 
see plainly in the 13th chapter, where we read that " there 
were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and 
teachers ; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and 
Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up 
with Herod, and Saul; and as they ministered unto the Lord, 
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul 
for the work whereunto I have called them : and when they had 
fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent 
them away ;" i. e. to be Missionaries from that Church to the 

and carried out and confirmed these distinctive principles ; — it might well have 
happened that the earlier Apostles would assert so much the more detenni- 
nately and rigidly their existing views, in opposition to this new course of 
things ; and thus by the triumph of a human particularism among the first 
teachers of the Gospel, an irreconcilable difference might have been pro- 
duced. But this destructive result, by which the self-seeking and one-sided 
views of men would have destroyed the unity of the work of God, was 
warded off by the watchful influence of the Holy Ghost, which suffered not 
differences to grow into divisions, but had power to preserve Unity in the midst 
of variety.'''' — Geschichte der Pflanzung der Christl. Kirclie, i. 83. 

* "E?i.XmKs is, according to Griesbach and the best critics, the true reading. 



THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 273 

heathen world. Which commission, moreover, Paul and Bar- 
nabas having fulfilled, by going about to Seleucia, and Cyprus, 
and Pamphylia, and Pisidia, and Lycaonia, and Attalia, and 
ordaining elders in every new church constituted by them in 
those countries (xiv. 23) ; they " sailed thence" (we are told, 
xiv. 26, 27), " to Antioch, from whence they had been recom- 
mended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled ; 
and when they were come, and had gathered the church together, 
they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he 
had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." 

Thus then you learn, how, as opportunity was afforded, by 
God's providence, for spreading the Gospel through Judea and 
into heathen lands, other Communities, or Societies of Chris- 
tians were formed, on the same principles and for the same 
ends with that first Community, that Model School as it were, 
which the Apostles had established in Jerusalem. So that the 
whole multitude of Christians, who were at first comprehended 
within the narrow limits of the Sacred City ; and concerning 
whom St. Luke says (ii. 47) " the Lord added to the church " 
i. e. the single body of disciples at Jerusalem, " daily, such as 
should be saved ;" soon began to be spoken of as spread 
through many distinct Societies. Whence St. Luke speaks of 
" the churches throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria " 
(Acts ix. 31) ; and St. Paul of " the churches of God which in 
Judea," (distinct fraternities even in one and the same 
region !) " were in Christ Jesus" (1 Thess. ii. 14) ; and again, 
when he says to the Romans, '' to whom all the churches of 
the Gentiles give thanks." Rom. xvi. 4. Nay and in this 
same chapter (v. 16), though writing from only a single city, 
Corinth, he adds, " the churches of Christ salute you." The 
grand Idea, which had been placed before the Apostles by our 
blessed Lord, and the first working of which was exhibited 
among the Christians of Jerusalem, was acted upon wherever a 

N 5 



274 THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 

number of men were turned to the Lord; and everywhere, 
not only truth was preached, and individual souls were saved, 
but organized communities were formed, connected with each 
other not by artificial outward ties, but by inward sympathy of 
principle and object — not by an enforced uniformity but by a 
spontaneous unanimity — not by means of a subordination 
established by authority, but by means of a co-ordination kept 
up by mutual reverence and love ; related to each other, not 
so much as daughter churches, but rather as sister commu- 
nities, in the Lord. I beg you to mark this fact, which has 
unfolded itself so clearly as we have gone on through the 
sacred annals ; for it strikes at the very root of that despotic 
authority which the one particular church of Rome claims for 
herself over all other Christian communities, as the Mother and 
Mistress of them all. " Mother and Mistress !" Terms ill- 
assorted, and bringing into conjunction the two incompatible 
notions of free aflPection, and constrained submission I Even 
were she the Mother of all ; that is, if all the more modern 
churches had been formed as she asserts, by the instru- 
mentality of missionaries going forth from her bosom ; she 
would not therefore be the Mistress of those churches — no, 
not were she herself still pure. She could properly claim 
no connexion with them but that of sisterly correspondence 
and consultation. She could not constitute herself the 
centre of their movements ; but could only move in harmony 
with them, as co -satellites around the only Sun, in the Chris- 
tian firmament, the Lord Jesus Christ! The Church of 
Antioch was the daughter of the Church of Jerusalem, just in 
this sense that fugitives from the persecution there, were the 
first who carried to the heathen city the seeds of the Gospel. 
But the church at Antioch was not therefore subject to the 
church at Jerusalem. But on the contrary, when certain men 
came down from that church and taught the brethren in 



THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 



275 



Antioch, " Except ye be circumcised after the manner of 
Moses ye cannot be saved," that church itself " after no small 
dissension and disputation with them," determined to send 
Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them as their repre- 
sentatives, to argue this question with the Apostles and 
Elders at Jerusalem. Acts xv. 1, 2. Which mission of 
those deputies, St. Paul most carefully and explicitly tells us 
in his letter to the Galatians, was undertaken not in obedience 
to any summons received from the Jerusalem Church ; or 
from any necessity under which the brethren at Antioch felt 
themselves, to submit to the authority of that Church ; but, 
" I went up," he says, " b?/ revelation " {i. e, by the sugges- 
tion of the Spirit deciding my own personal judgment of the 
course to be pursued)," and communicated to them that gospel 
which I preach among the Gentiles; — and that because of 
false brethren, unawares brought in, who came in privily to 
spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they 
might bring us into bondage." Observe, he went up, not to 
submit himself to bondage, but to protest against every attempt 
by a party in the church at Jerusalem to bring them into 
bondage ; " to whom," he adds, " we gave place by subjection, 
no, not for an hour I that the truth of the gospel might 
continue with you !" In a word, the one great principle on 
which the Gospel was spread abroad, was not the overgrowth 
but the propagation by sets, of the First Community ; not the 
swelling of one particular church into an unwieldy monarchy, 
attempting to govern, where it could not benefit, and to enforce 
ecclesiastical conformity where there could not be personal 
communion ; but the multiplication of similar bodies, in co- 
ordinate spheres, each one nourishing its own life, and regu- 
lating its own interior concerns, though- all united by their 
common relation to one common centre — the Head of their 
confederation — the President of these independent yet united 



276 THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 

states, — the holding of whose truths and the participation of 
whose Spirit, was the condition, as of the individual life of 
each society, so also of the common unity of all.* " To the 
church of God, which is at Corinth ;" writes St. Paul, 
" to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be 
saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus 
Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." 1 Cor. i. 2. " These 
things saith He," says the divine, sole Monarch himself, 
" that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh 
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks ; — he that hath 
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches I " 
Rev. ii. 1,7. " And all the churches shall know that I am 
He which searcheth the reins and hearts." Rev. ii. 23. 
" Him " — him alone — " God gave to be the Head over all things 
to the church, which is his body, the fulness of Him that 
filleth all in all !" Eph. i. 23. 

And here then we are led to the fourth of the propositions 
which we at first enunciated, L.amely ; — 

That it is the Aggregate or Sum of such particular Commu- 
nities, contemplated abstractedly, as an ideal whole, under the 
presidency of Jesus as its Head, which is called in Scripture 

* Their origin was derivative, "but their authority was primitive. They 
were formed by the instrumentality of men, but ruled by the direct law of 
Christ. They were " all primitive and all Apostolical, because all agreeing 
in one and the same unity because there was among them an intercourse of 
ami'ty, and a recognition of fraternity, and a league of friendship ; which 
rights sprang from no other law than tlie descent to all of them of the same doc- 
■irine.'''' So says Tertullian, de Prsescript, Hseret. 20. " Sic omnes primae, et 
omnes Apostolicae, dum una omnes probant unitatem ; dum est illis communi- 
catio pacis, et appellatio fraternitatis, et contesseratio hospitalitatis ; quae 
jura non alia ratio regit quam ejusdem sacramenti una traditio." ("Those 
who are acquainted with the Latin fathers know that sacramentum is con- 
stantly used by them for ' doctrine.'" Gary on the Articles, 245.) 



THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 277 

The Church ; and in the Apostles Creed, the Catholic, or 
universal, Church. 

It is not, we repeat, in any instance, one monstrous pyramid, 
piled up by successive layers of authority, one upon another, 
and at the summit thereof exalted a fallible sinful man as vice- 
gerent, or vicar, of Christ ; which the Scriptures indicate by 
this term " The Church ;" but it is always, either some one 
particular community, to which the demonstrative article 
points, and which the context indicates, either expressly or by 
implication, as " the Church at Jerusalem" (Acts ii. 47. viii. 1) ; 
or "the Church at Antioch" (Acts xiii. 1) ; or else it is the 
Sum of all particular Communities, looked upon as an ideal 
whole under the exclusive Presidency of Christ himself; — the 
Heads, or Angels, of those particular churches being recog- 
nized, as in the Apocalypse, as accountable onli/ to Him who 
holds each several star in his own right hand. Any other 
scheme, though very imposing by its vastness, is equally im- 
practicable, as it is unscriptural ; and, like the sublime attempt 
at universal empire by old Rome, must fall to pieces by its 
own unwieldiness. But still more — any other scheme would 
be just that very "mystery of iniquity," — that working of the 
lust of pre-eminence and domination over the consciences of 
men, — that spiritual despotism, — against which the Apostle 
expressly warns the Thessalonians when he tells them that ere 
long " that man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition, 
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, 
or that is worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in the temple 
of God" (^. e. the Church), " shewing himself that he is God ;" 
by usurping in it the office, and attempting to execute in it the 
jurisdiction, which belongs to the divine Head of his people, 
Jesus Christ, alone. The term " The Church," belongs of 
rio-ht, (except where an ellipsis of the place occurs) to no one 



278 THE CHUECH, CATHOLIC. 

particular body of Christians ; it is not to be arrogated by any- 
one Society of those who serve the Lord Christ ; but it belongs 
only, in its Scripture acceptation, to the Aggregate, or Sum of 
particular bodies, of which aggregate, or sum, these several 
particular bodies form integral parts just in proportion — and 
only in proportion— -as they hold fast Christ's doctrine — as 
they are actuated by Christ's Spirit — and as they regulate 
themselves according to Christ's appointments. Else do they 
fall off, like withered branches, from the true Vine. Else are 
they actually removed, and their light put out, by their jealous 
Lord, even as to the churches of Asia, he declared, (and his 
words have been awfully verified, to this day,) " I will remove 
thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." 

And it is then of suck a whole, made up of such parts, that 
our Lord speaks, when he says to Peter, " On this rock I will 
build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it." Matt. xvi. 18. It is of such a whole, made up of such 
parts, that St. Paul declares, " Christ loved the Church and 
gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, as 
by the washing of water, by the word." Eph. v. 26. And it 
is of such a whole made up of such parts, that the same Apos- 
tle says, that Christ " is the Head of the body, the Church " 
(Col. i. 18) ; yea that God " created all things by Jesus Christ, 
to the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in 
heavenly places, might be known by the Church the manifold 
wisdom of God" (Eph. iii. 9, 10); and therefore bursts into 
that ecstatic utterance of adoration towards Him who works 
throughout this sacred body as its life, " To Him be glory in 
the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without 
end. Amen I" Eph. iii. 21. 

And it is consequently of such a whole, made up of such 
parts, that we speak, when in the Apostles' Creed, (which 
Creed is true and binding on us only in the sense of the word 



THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 



279 



of God — only so far as its several Articles " may be proved by 
most certain warrants of holy Scripture/') we profess to believe 
in " The holy Catholic Church^ This is the sense in which 
the term is presented to us by Theophylact, when he defines 
the Catholic Church " that which is diffused throughout all the 
world, whose sum, or whole, is made up of all the churches 
everywhere, and which has for its one head, Christ."* And 
again by Cyril of Jerusalem, who says, " The Church is called 
Catholic " (or universal), " because it is diffused throughout all 
the world, from one end of the earth to the other ; and because 
it teaches catholically" (universally) " and without any omis- 
sion all the doctrines which ought to be brought to the 
knowledge of men,... and because it administers the Catholic" 
(universal) " remedy for all the forms of human sinfulness,... 
and because it possesses in itself the whole sum of the pure 
Ideas of moral excellence in deed and word, and every sort of 
spiritual gift."f The later notion of the Catholic Church — 
the parent of such wide-spreading and intolerable evil — that it 
is an universal spiritual Monarchy, under one despotic Autocrat; 
or, in a word, that the inward union of Christian individuals 
and Communities can be represented only by an outward 
Unity, — or rather Unicity — of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction — this 
was first worked up into a Theory (and truly a very splendid 
one) in the elaborate treatise of Cyprian ; and then, alas I too 
soon wrought out into practice by the successive encroach- 
On 1 Cor. xii. p. 271. YLaSoXtJch Ix-fcX'/iffia, h '7fccvra,')(^ov rr,i ol}iov[xiv'/ii, vt? 

TO ffUf/.CC ffWiffTYlKlV IK TUV CCTTaVTU^OU iKKXTKriUV, lp(^OV TTIV »S(pfl5X'/?V TOV X^KrTOV. 

SuiCER in V. isc}cXyi(r'ioc 

"Y Cateches. xviii. KcJoXtzii x.aXurot.t, "hiv. ro Kara, -Traam u^iai T'Ai o'iKov(A,ir/,it 
aTo vri^aTuv yni \wg Ti^arav' kch) ha to h^ao-KSiv KaSoXtKus kva aviXXiiTeog, 
a-PTavra ra s/j yvSa-tv av^^M-^MV \Xh7v o(psiXovTa '^o'y/icaTa, — Kai ^la to KU.6oXiKUi 
laT^iVBiv fiiv Kat h^uTiCiiv ci-prav ro ruv cci^a^riuv u^o;,- — KiKrriirSai Iv avr'/i 
'Tta.ffa'i lOBOiv ovof/,a^oiu,iv'/]; a^sTT^s, iv 'i^yots n ku) Xoyoi; kx) •xviVfji.ariKo'ii 
•ravro'toti ^a^i<rfji,a(ri. SuiCER, in verb: KaioXiKOi, 



280 THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 

merits of the ambitious bishops of Rome, till they fulfilled the 
prophecy of the great Apostacy^ and revealed themselves as 
the Antichrist, the man of sin, denounced by the Apostle Paul. 
But, on the contrary, the true scriptural Unity of the church is 
that of many members, each in its place of equal importance, 
under one invisible Head. And the true scriptural Catho- 
licity, or Universality, of the church is just the Ideal Whole 
which is conceived as made up by the aggregation of these 
several members ; * and by the diffusion through them of that 
quickening, actuating, and harmonizing Spirit of life, which is 
the Spirit of Christ, and of God,— the Holy Ghost. Even as 
says the Apostle, " There is one body and one Spirit, even 
as ye are called in one hope of your calling ; one Lord, one 
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above 
all, and through all, and in you alL" Eph. iv. 4 — 6.f 

See then, dear Reader, what is indispensable to consti- 
tute you a living member, both of any one particular religious 
community, and of the Catholic Church of Christ. It is indis - 
pen sable, you perceive, that you should possess in yourself this 



* " For the single persons professing faith in Christ are members of the 
particular churches in which they live ; and all those particular churches are 
members of the General and Universal Church, which is One by unity of aggre- 
gation.'''' — Bp. Pearson. 

t " It appears plainly from the sacred narrative, that though the many 
churches which the Apostles founded were branches of one Spiritual Brother- 
hood, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the heavenly Head — though there 
was ' one Lord, one faith, one baptism,' for all of them, yet they were each 
a distinct, independent community on earth, united by tlie common principles 
cm which they were founded and by their mutual agreement, affection and re- 
spect ; but not having any one recognized Head on earth, or acknowledging 
any sovereignty of one of those societies over others." Abp. Whately on 
the Kingdom of Christ, p. 102. I rejoice to meet (while passing through the 
press) with such a confirmation, from such a quarter, of the views put forth 
in the text. 

So also in page 137 of the same work the Archbishop adds, from the 



THE CHURCH, CATHOLIC. 281 

one Spirit which animates that one body ; that you should be 
filled with the faith of God's elect — animated by their hope — 
united by spiritual union to their Lord. Vain, worse than 
vain, will be our ecclesiastical union with any one of those 
churches over which Christ rules, if we do not, by means of 
this union, and making the most of all the advantages afforded 
us in this union, attain to and keep up a spiritual communion 
with that head himself. Look to this. Pray for this. Be 
satisfied with nothing short of this. That being thus made a 
lively member of Christ's Holy Catholic Church on earth, you 
may be at the same time reckoned among that " whole family 
in heaven and earth which is named of him ;" you may be 
joined already in spirit to " the general assembly and church 
of the first-born, which are written in heaven ;" and may come 
at last to that " great multitude which no man can number, of 
all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, which stand 
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
robes, and palms in their hands, crying with a loud voice, 
Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the Lamb ! " 

Encycl. Metrop. : " The Church is undoubtedly orae, and so is the human race 
one ; but not as a Society. It was from the first composed of distinct socie- 
ties ; which were called one, because formed on common principles. The cir- 
cumstance of its having one common Head, (Christ,) one Spirit, one Father, 
are points of unity which no more make the Church One Society on earth, 
than the circumstance of all men having the same Creator, and being derived 
from the same Adam, renders the human race one family. The Church is 
one then, not as consisting of one society, but because the various societies, or 
churches, were then modelled, and ought still to be so, on the same principles ; 
and because they enjoy common privileges^ — one Lord, one Spirit, one baptism." 



282 



CHAPTER V. 



THE CHURCH, HOLY. 



In considering that Article of our Creed whicli treats of 
"The holy Catholic Church," as the Sphere in which the 
Holy Ghost fulfils the work assigned to him as the Vicegerent 
of Christ, we have seen, — First, that our blessed Lord ex- 
pressly designed that his personal followers should form them- 
selves, after his departure, into a Community for religious 
ends, i. e. a Church ; — Secondly, That such a religious Society, 
or Church, was accordingly actually formed in Jerusalem, un- 
der the jurisdiction of the Apostles ; — Thirdly, That as the 
Gospel spread throughout Judea and into heathen lands, other 
religious Societies, on the same principles and for the same 
ends, were constituted in various places, which Societies are 
spoken of in Scripture as " the Churches" of Christ ; — and, 
Fourthly, That the Aggregate or Sum of all such actual Socie- 
ties, taken together as an Ideal Whole, is what is termed by 
the sacred writers " the Church," and in the Apostles' Creed 
" The Cathohc" (or universal) " Church ;" of which Catholic, 
or universal. Church the various particular religious commu- 
nities are to be looked upon as parts so far, — and only so far — 
as they hold fast the doctrine — are actuated by the Spirit — and 
regulate themselves according to the appointments, of their 
One Sole Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

And thus we have learned what is meant in the Creed 
when it speaks of "^ The Church " as one comprehensive body ; 
and when it calls this body " The Catholic " or universal, 
" Church." There remains therefore now but one more 



THE CHURCH, HOLY. 



283 



point to be investigated in this clause ; namely, Why is this 
body called " The hoi?/ Catholic Church ?" 

Now this point will be developed if we go on to consider 
the last of those Five propositions before enunciated as com- 
prising the whole of the Scripture doctrine concerning the 
Church : this namely, — 

That the End for which our Lord designed the formation of 
those several religious Communities, which, taken together as 
an Ideal whole, are called " The Church," is the more effectucd 
communication of Himself by His Spirit, to all the members of 
the same; with reference to which End, and the relation into 
which the Church is brought to Christ in oi^der to that End, it is 
called " The Holy Catholic Church." 

For, if you look into Scripture on this last particular, you 
will find that Christ has taken his church into a special 
relation to Himself — which confers upon it an ideal holiness ; 
in order to the training up its members into likeness to himself, 
— which constitutes its actual holiness. Or in other words ; 
he, at once, and preliminarily, through the freeness of his 
grace, receives men into Union, that he may subsequently by 
the gradual operation of his Spirit, bring them into Com- 
munion with himself. He imparts to them the righteousness 
which flows from his imputed merits, in order to produce 
in them the holiness which flows from his communicated pre- 
sence. He makes them to be accounted holy, by relation, in 
order that they may become holy in person.* 

" While preparing these pages for the press I find that Bishop Hopkins 
has employed just the same term to express the external sanctity of the Church 
of Christ. He says ; " To be sanctified. . . is no other than to be appointed, 
separated, or dedicated to God. There are two ways of dedication unto God, 
whereby his title takes place, and what is so devoted becomes his. The one ex- 
ternal, by men. . . whereby there is no change at all wrought in the nature of the 
thing thus dedicated, but only a change in the relation and propriety of it. As 



284 -THE CHURCH HOLY 

We have therefore, in this Chapter, to contemplate the 
Church as " Holy" in these two senses. First, in idea, from 
the relation of its members to their risen Lord. And Secondly, 
in facU by the assimilation of those members, through the 
Spirit, to their Lord. 



SECTION L 

THE CHURCH HOLY BY RELATION TO CHRIST. 

The Church is " holy" in idea from the relation into which 
it is brought with its risen Lord. And it is just this relative 

there is a two-fold dedication or separation, so there is also a two-fold sanctifi- 
cation. There is an external, relative, or ecclesiastical sanctification, which 
is nothing else but the devoting or giving up a thing or person unto God, by 
those who have a power to do so. There is an internal, real, and spiritucd 
sanctification ; and in this sense a man is said to be sanctified when the Holy 
Ghost doth infuse into his soul the habits of divine grace, and maketh him 
partaker of the divine nature, whereby he is inwardly qualified to glorify God 
in a holy life." He then asserts that " Baptism is the immediate means of 
our external a?z<i relative sanctification unto God.". . . " Hence it follows that 
all those who are members of the visible church, may truly be called Saints, 
and members of Christ, and the children and people of God.".. . For the Chris- 
tian Church now, is in the same capacity, and stands in the same relation to- 
wards God as the Jewish Church did. But clear it is that in the most cor- 
mpt state of the Jewish. Church, God stUl owned them for his people. Jer. 
iv. 22. ' My people is foolish ;' ' They have not known me ;' and Isaiah i. 
3, 4. ' My people doth not consider.' ' Ah, shaful nation, a people laden 
with iniquity, a seed of evil doers ! ' They are God's people, and yet ' a 
people laden with iniquity.' My children ; and yet ' a seed of evil doers ; 
children that are corrupters.' Yea, and in the New Testament we find sanc- 
tification and holiness ascribed to those who were never otherwise sanctified 
than by their external separation from the world and profession of the doctrine 
of Christ. St. Paul directs his epistles to the whole Church of Corinth, as to 
' Saints ; ' 'To them which are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be 
saints ;' 1 Cor. i. 2. Yet Avere there some in this Church of Corinth, that 
had not the knowledge of God, that denied the resurrection, and were grossly 
guilty of foul and flagitious crimes." — Bishop Hopkins as quoted by 
Bishop M'Ilvaine : in his " Oxford Divinity.'''' 



BY RELATION TO CHRIST. 285 

holiness, thus imparted to it, from its union with Christ — made 
over to it as the bridal privilege which flows from his choosing 
it as his own peculiar treasure — that St. Paul illustrates by a 
very touching image in his letter to the Ephesians, chap. v. 25 
— S3. He had begun to speak of the duties of Christian hus- 
bands towards their wives, which duties he sums up in that all- 
comprehensive one of Love : " Husbands, love your wives ! " 
But how ? to what extent ? with what feelings ? for what end ? 
" Even as Christ also loved the Church." The Apostle wants 
an illustration of the freeness, fulness, tenderness, which should 
characterise wedded love, and he gathers it from that topic 
with which his heart was constantly occupied, the love of Christ. 
Just as when he sought to stir up the Corinthians to benefi- 
cence he tells them, " Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became 
poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich I" — ^just as 
when he would enforce a self-denying — nay even self-forget- 
ting — charity on the Philippians, he says, " Let the same mind 
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus /" — so, when he wants 
to press home love — a love of the noblest and most delicate 
kind — towards one who is to be looked upon as brought into 
the closest union with ourself ; then^ similarly, does his mind 
recur to Christ. " Husbands love your wives, even as Christ 
also loned the Church ! " O that our hearts may be ever full, 
as was the Apostle's, of Christ ! that we may derive our strong- 
est impulses to every duty from such affectionate recollection 
of Christ! 

But that comparison which St. Paul has recourse to, to illus- 
trate what should be a Christian conjugal affection, thus fur- 
nishes an illustration, in return, of the close relation in which 
the risen Jesus stands to his people. Let husbands love their 
wives as Christ loves the church, for the Church is to Christ 
as a wife to her husband. Even as a bridegroom to his bride, 



286 THE CHURCH HOLY 

SO is Christ to the Community of his people. Even as a Bride 
to him who has chosen her for his own, so is that Community 
to Christ. The whole figure, from the 25th to the 27th verse, 
is borrowed from this tender yet dignified relation ; and conse- 
quently all the expressions in those verses receive their proper 
interpretation only in the light of that figure. The Eastern 
bride was purchased at a costly price : — Christ " yaz?e him- 
self" in dowry "for the Church." The Eastern bride was 
purified for the nuptials by the bath : — Christ " purifies the 
church, as with the washing of water, hy his word.'' The 
Eastern bride was then brought forth with solemn state, and 
in all her shining ornaments presented to the bridegroom : 
— Christ has " presented to himself his church," thus radiant 
through the ornaments with which he has himself adorned 
her. Such is the relative holiness, the bridal purity and 
honour, with which the Lord invests his people, as consecrated 
to himself. 

Observe, how, in the first place, he has purchased to himself 
the Church at a most costly price. 

The steward of Abraham gave for Rebekah " jewels of sil- 
ver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and precious things." 
Jacob gave for Rachel the best of his youth and strength. 
He served for her seven years ; and they seemed to him but a 
few days, for the love he bore to her. Shechem the son of 
Hamor said, in his love for Dinah, Ask me never so much 
dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto 
me; but give me the damsel to wife. David gave for the 
daughter of Saul the dowry of two hundred Philistines slain 
by his valour and strength. But what is all this to the costly 
dowry which Christ has given, wherewith to betroth to himself 
his Church ? " Christ loved the Church and gave himself for 
it!" Himself! And are we not reminded here of what St. 



BY KELATION TO CHRIST. 287 

Paul says to the Hebrews^ of the Almighty God; " Because 
he could sware by no greater, he sware hy himself." Even so, 
because the Lord could give nothing greater, nothing so pre- 
cious, he gave himself I With his own life he purchased us 
to be his people. The blood of the bridegroom was the dowry 
for the bride ! O what love indeed is this ! " Christ also 
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a 
sacrifice to God ! " 

And what then has he next done for this bride of his free 
affections, purchased for himself at such a price ? Observe ; 
" he gave himself for the Church, that he might sanctify and 
cleanse it, with the washing of water, by the word" The Eastern 
bride was purified in the bath, for presentation to her husband. 
And when the Prophet Ezekiel would represent by the most 
striking image the great things God had done for Israel in his 
spontaneous compassionate affection for her, it is by just this 
very figure that he illustrates both the natural unworthiness and 
defilement of the nation, and the purification which the Lord 
vouchsafed to it, when he made it his own. " None eye pitied 
thee, to have compassion upon thee ; but when I passed by thee, 
and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, 
when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea I sware unto thee and 
entered into covenant with thee," (the marriage covenant,) 
" saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. Then washed 
I thee with water, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee 
also with broidered work, and shod thee with badger's skin, 
and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee 
with silk." Ezek. xvi. 5 — 10. The outcast and the loathsome 
was purified and adorned — was cleansed and sanctified — to be 
made fit for her nuptials with the King of kings. The nation 
that had lain among the pots of Egypt, in dust and dishonour, 
was made as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her 
feathers with yellow gold. And so says Paul of the converts 



288 THE CHURCH HOLY 

to the faith of Christ. Whatever their past obscurity or de- 
filement, their alienation and their guilt, they " were washed, 
were sanctified, were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus 
and by the Spirit of their God." Christ has provided for the 
bride whom he has purchased at a price so costly, a purifica- 
tion, of which all outward washings are but an imperfect sym- 
bol. What the outward washing of water is to the cleansing 
of the body, that the inward infusion of Christian truth is to 
the cleansing of the mind. " The word," — that which St. 
Paul delights to call emphatically and without filling up the 
ellipsis, " The word," (cf. Gal. vi. 6. Phil. i. 14. 2 Tim. iv. 2,) 
but which he elsewhere terms, at length, " the word of the 
truth of the gospel" (Col. i. 5), " the word of faith" (Rom. x. 
8), " the word of reconciliation " (2 Cor. v. 19), " the word of 
life" (Phil. ii. 16), " the word of Christ" (Col. iii. 16), " the 
word of God's grace" (Acts xx. 32) ; the proclamation, there- 
fore, of free pardon and acceptance through the reconciling 
mediation of the Son of God — this it is which ," purifies the 
conscience from dead works to serve the living God ;" this, 
which cleanses and consecrates the ransomed spirit to a sacred 
relationship of humble confidence toward its gracious Lord; 
this, which wins over the admiring heart to follow the injunc- 
tion of the Psalmist in that splendid nuptial ode (which is not 
without its mystic meaning in relation to the Church of God) 
" Hearken, O daughter and consider, and incline thine ear ; 
forget also thine own people and thy father's house ; so shall the 
King greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord,* and wor- 
ship thou him I " How beautiful are the analogies in which 
Scripture delights to set forth spiritual truths, adorning while 
illustrating ! How exquisitely is the entire acceptableness — the 
fi*eedom from all ofFensiveness — yea the attractive comeliness, 
the imputed righteousness and perfect justification of the be- 

* i. e. Thy husbaaid. See Gen. xviii. 12 : 1 Pet. iii. 6. 



BY RELATION TO CHRIST. 



289 



loved of Christ, the elect of God, thus figured out ! The 
Church is to Christ as his selected bride. And her perfect 
acceptableness, through belief in his atonement, is as the 
cleansing in the nuptial bath. And this figure which St. Paul 
sets forth to the ear in words, is presented to the eye in deed, 
by the very sacrament of initiation, the rite of our espousals 
to the Lord, Baptism is ordained to be the sign and seal of 
this acceptance ; the laver of regeneration, or transference into 
a new relation to Christ. And it becomes, as St. Peter assures 
us, to all who receive it with a living faith, " not the mere put- 
ting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good 
conscience," the assurance of a cleansed, and justified mind, 
that God has entered into covenant with us — that we are 
united to Christ — that the Son of God has loved us, and given 
himself for us, and made us his ! And may we not then say 
to Christians, thus awakened to a sense of union with their 
risen Lord, even as the Prophet says to Israel, " Thy Maker 
is thine husband ; the Lord of Hosts is his name ! " Yea even 
as he cheers her in another place, " Thou shalt no more be 
termed Forsaken, for the Lord delighteth in thee. As the 
bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice 
over thee ! " 

For what is declared to us, yet further, concerning this re- 
lative holiness of the Church, by the figure which we are con- 
sidering ? That Christ presents to himself this Church, as an 
adorned and radiant bride, the object of complacency and love. 
For this is what is intimated by the words of the 27th verse, 
" that he might present it to himself a glorious" (e. e. resplen- 
dent, radiant*) " church,t not having spot, or wrinkle, or any 

* See %vho%os in Luke "vii, 25, ol iv if/.aritrfAaj hVo^ai " they whiclx are gor- 
geously apparalled." Ps. xlv. 13. " The king's daughter is all glorious 
within ;" (in her palace) " her clothing is of wrought gold." 

t Or rather, " that he might unite to himself the church, radiant &c." 





290 THE CHURCH HOLY 

such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." 
It is not of any final presentation of the Church before the 
Lord, at his second coming, — and not of any preparation for 
such presentation, by his working in her a moral holiness of 
character now, — that these words are used ; but it is of his 
first taking her into union with himself ; solemnizing his es- 
pousals with her ; and endowing her with that imputed righte- 
ousness of conjugal relation^ by which he looks upon her, and 
accepts her, with complacency, as his own, his radiant bride. 
The Eastern bride was brought in solemn pomp to her be- 
trothed ; was welcomed by his approving smile ; was installed 
by him as partaker of his rank and fortune. " She shall be 
brought unto the king," says the Psalmist of the royal bride 
of Solomon, " in raiment of needlework ; the virgins her com- 
panions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With 
gladness and rejoicing -shall they be brought: they shall enter 
into the king's palace." Ps. xlv. 14, 15. And therefore in 
terms derived from this same solemnity does Ezekiel depict 
the perfect acceptableness of Israel in the sight of the Lord, 
and the glory which he vouchsafed to put upon her : " I 
decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy 
hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy 
forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown 
upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and sil- 
ver ; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered 
work ; and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thy renown went 
forth among the heathen for thy beauty ; for it was perfect 
through my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the 
Lord God." Ezek.xvi. 11 — 14. There is the image of that 
bridal glory, in which the Apostle John beheld the Church, in 

T«^aa-T'/i5"/7, adjungeret^ sociaret, ut sponsa jungitar sponso. See Bos. ad h. I. 
Comp. 2 Cor. xi. 2. "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may 
present you (■zrcc^aa-rtia-etf) as a chaste virgin to Christ." 



BY KELATION TO CHRIST. 291 

her Idea^ as clothed ah*eady before God in heaven, with that 
perfect righteousness, or acceptableness, which entitles her to 
participate in her Lord's final triumph, and reign with him on 
his millennial throne. " I, John, saw the holy City, new Jeru- 
salem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a 
bride adorned for her hushandr Rev. xxi. 2. 

Such then is the holiness of the Church resulting from its 
sacred relation to the King of saints — such the imputed righte- 
ousness of the people of God as justified and accepted through 
his merits, and counted holy for his sake. And hence it is that 
such magnificent terms are used in Scripture of the several 
Christian communities, contemplated ideally as wholes, even 
though within those very Communities there was so much to 
censure, and so many individuals who were dishonouring God. 
It is as belonging to Christ — as having been purchased by the 
blood of Christ — as being sanctified and purified by the merits 
of Christ, — as brought into a sacred covenant and engagement 
with Christ — that St. Paul denominates the Roman Christians 
" beloved of God, called, saints ;" and that he addresses the 
Corinthians as " sanctified in Christ Jesus, called, saints." 
And it is this same sacredness of relationship, this freeness of 
acceptance in the Beloved, which is represented to us by the 
washing of baptism, as the first step towards all moral im- 
provement, the preliminary condition of all progress in Chris- 
tian excellence, the point of starting, from which alone we can 
run with security and success the race of personal holiness to 
which we are called. Remember this, dear Reader ! Hold 
fast this truth. Consider that "you are not your own, but 
bought with a price, that you may therefore glorify God in 
your body and your spirit, which are God's." Recollect that 
Christ has freely purified you, yea presented you to himself 
adorned with all the comeliness of his unmerited complacency, 
that you may thenceforth, and because of this^ love him who 

o 2 



292 



THE CHURCH HOLY 



first loved you ; be faithful to him who has taken you for his 
own ; and walk worthy of him who has called jon to his eternal 
kingdom and glory I Justification must precede sanctification ; 
and therefore the doctrine of the relative holiness of the Church 
of Christ, through her union with him, is an indispensable pre- 
liminary to her personal holiness through communion with him. 
" Thou art a7i hoi?/ jjeople," says Moses to the Israelites, '' unto 
the Lord thy God : the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a 
special people unto himself, above all people that are on the 
face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, 
nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any 
people ; but because the Lord loved you, hath the Lord brought 
you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house 
of bondmen. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments 
and the statutes and the judgments which I command thee 
this day, to do them." Deut. vii. 6 — 11. 

And O how full of practical admonition, then, is this sub- 
ject ! Let me point out some few particulars in which the 
devout belief of it will work upon the heart and life. 

First — with what adoring gratitude will the Christian con- 
template his relation to Christ. Are you indeed made " holy" 
through the imputation of his merits, and not for your own 
works and deservings ? Are you counted, for his sake, comely, 
honourable, beloved ? How glorious is your privilege ! How 
high the rank to which you have been raised ! The husband, 
you know, whatever his rank, raises his wife up to the same, 
from whencesoever she have been taken. The wealth, the 
dignity, the nobility, the royalty, of him who has chosen her 
becomes her own. And you, then, Christian, being chosen in 
Christ, are raised up to his dignity, endowed with his wealth 
and glory. He has " lifted you up" as it were, " from the 
dunghill, and set you with princes, even the princes of his 



BY RELATION TO CHRIST. 



293 



people." And therefore even as a timid bride rejoices with 
an un definable trembling when she looks to all the honour put 
upon her, and the privileges into which she is introduced by a 
princely choice ; so let your heart flow out in grateful praise 
to your royal Lord! " Giving thanks unto the Father," says 
St. Paul to the Colossians, " which hath privileged us to be 
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;" — for " you 
that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by 
wicked works yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his 
flesh, through death, to present you {ita^a(jTr\aai i;juac)holy, 
and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight." Col. i. 
12, 21, 22. How similar, how equally strong the language 
here, to that which we have been considering I Who shall 
consider what Christ has done for him in thus betrothing him 
to himself, without exclaiming with the church of old, " I will 
greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God ! 
He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath 
covered me with the robe of righteousness ; as a bridegroom 
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth her- 
self with her jewels !" 

But next, learn hence the jealous care with which we should 
maintain our privilege in Christ. The Gentile churches when 
they heard the proclamation of free acceptance in Christ Jesus 
" were glad, and glorified the name of the Lord." Acts xiii. 
48. But the next step was that " certain men came down to 
them from Judea and taught the brethren, Except ye be cir- 
cumcised, after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." 
Acts XV. 1. And thus it is always. The Idea of completed 
relative holiness, through another than ourselves, without our 
own works and deservings, is so high, so transcendent, so diffi- 
cult to seize, and still more to retain, in all its purity, that we 
are continually in danger of being seduced to think that we 
must strengthen our covenant with God, by some additional 



294 THE CHURCH HOLY 

securities derived from some other source than from the free 
electing love of our gracious Lord. Ceremonial strictness — 
ecclesiastical merit — priestly intercession — sacramental efficacy 
—something must be brought in to increase our recommenda- 
tion to the notice and favour of God. But what would a bride 
think of the officious zeal of friends to bribe for her the kind- 
ness of her betrothed ? What would a bridegroom think of 
any scheme for laying him under an obligation to make, or to 
maintain, that choice which he has already freely exercised 
from his spontaneous love ? O how easily men treat God as 
they would never venture to treat men I The very thought of 
such a literally preposterous work as the negotiating for an 
union which has been already celebrated, and purchasing a 
grace which has been already bestowed, is destructive of the 
whole relation ! And hence the prompt indignation with which 
it is repelled by Paul. " If by grace, then is it no more of 
works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if of works, 
then is it no more grace ; otherwise work is no more work." 
Kom. xi. 6. " Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith 
Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the 
yoke of bondage. Behold, 1 Paul say unto you, that if ye 
be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Christ is 
become of no effect unto you,who soever of you are justified 
by the law ; ye are fallen from grace !" Gal. v. 1 — 4. Chris- 
tian, remember this ! Your relation to Christ must truly be 
followed by personal holiness, but it cannot be created nor 
strengthened by personal holiness, S an ctifi cation is truly as 
indispensable to salvation as is justification ; but sanctification 
must not be brought in to produce, or to help out, justification. 
" Good works" as says our twelfth Article, " are pleasing and 
acceptable to God in Christ, and they spring out necessarily 
of a true and lively faith ;" but assuredly the being in Christ 
must precede that which becomes pleasing and acceptable only 
in Christ; and though the tree is known by its fruits, that 



BY RELATION TO CHRIST. 295 

tree must have been planted, yea and have been permeated by 
the sap of life before it will put forth fruits. Keep together 
inseparable^ but at the same time keep together distinct, what 
you are in Christ, and what you must become by Christ. That 
is, in a word, remember constantly your baptismal standing, as 
set forth in your Catechism ; " Wherein / was made a mem- 
ber of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom 
of heaven," and " theri' and therefore, " my godfathers and god- 
mothers did promise and vow three things in my name — that I 
should renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh." 

And therefore learn, once more, from this subject, the 
earnest fidelity, with which we should keep to this engagement 
made with us by the Lord. Israel was made holy, as God's 
people — his betrothed. But Israel went away from God ; and 
her manifold transgressions and idolatries are continually set 
forth by the prophets as adultery — unfaithfulness to her mar- 
riage vow to the Lord. And just with a siijiilar figure St. 
Paul says to the Corinthians, anxious lest even in thought and 
feeling they should decline from the first glow of their affec- 
tion towards the heavenly Bridegroom, " I am jealous over 
you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one hus- 
band, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve 
through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from 
the simplicity " (the singleness and thoroughness of your first 
love) " that is in Christ." And O then let us take this 
warning to ourselves ! If we belong to Christ let us seek to 
become like Christ. If he has loved us let us with a devoted 
faithfulness love him. " As the elect of God " says Paul to 
the Colossians, " holy and beloved, put on bowels of mer" 
cies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering ; 
— and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the 
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father 
by him !" 



296 THE CHURCH HOLY 



SECTION II. 

THE CHURCH HOLY BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 

Every one who has made himself at all familiar with the 
world within himself as distinguished from the world without, 
must have felt the exceeding difference which exists between 
the idea which he has formed of a thing, in his mind, and its 
reality as brought out into actual life — between what he con- 
ceives in theory and what he meets with in experience — 
between the pattern, or design, which his imagination has 
sketched, and the copy, or execution, which his hand has 
accomplished. 

Now without constantly adverting to this distinction between 
idea and fact we shall never be able to enter into the decla- 
rations of Scripture concerning divine things. Scripture is 
the book of the religious Ideas. It contains (like the vision 
showed to Moses in the Mount) the patterns of things accord- 
ing to the divine Idea. And much of its language is con- 
cerning these patterns — these pure models of truth and holi- 
ness — of which the actual /acfe of Christian history and Chris- 
tian experience are but defective imitations. The Idea of the 
Christian character^ for example, as depicted by St. Paul, how 
pure it is ! how grand ! how heavenly ! And yet the actual 
character of the Christian men to whom he writes, how short 
it comes of this Ideal ! how constantly is the Apostle obliged 
to point them to it, not as the image of what they are, but the 
pattern of what they should be — at once their admiration and 
their shame I " The spiritual man judgeth all things, yet he 



BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 



297 



himself is judged of no man." " But I, brethren, could not 
speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as 
unto babes in Christ ! " 

The Idea, again, of our relation to God as Christians^ how 
complete is the reconciliation — how free the access — how cer- 
tain the inheritance — which it assures to us, as the children of 
God by faith in Christ Jesus ! And yet what Christian is 
there whose actual experience realizes, without interruption, 
this complete assurance of the Father's complacency — this 
enjoyment of his presence — this hope of his glory ? " Ye 
are complete in him " says St. Paul to the Colossians. And 
yet he is obliged to write, a few verses further on, " If ye be 
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as 
though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances ?" 

Just so is it also with the Idea of the Church of Christ ; and 
her relation to her Lord. Looked at in theory she is perfect, 
sanctified, glorious, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. 
Our relative holiness as brought into union with our risen 
Head, and having his merits imputed to us, is complete. We 
are made " the righteousness of God in him." And yet this 
beautiful Idea finds not its proper correlative in fact. This 
splendour of the Church is not exhibited by the churches. And 
even as the Idea of the Christian man — the model of what he 
should be in privilege and character — gives only the standard 
by which he must try himself, and to which he must be con- 
tinually approximating ; so similarly, the Idea of the whole 
Community of Christian men, i. e. of the Church, gives only 
the standard by which all particular churches must be tried, 
and to which they must be continually approximating. Or, 
in other words, the relative holiness of the church, resulting 
from its union with the Lord, has been vouchsafed only in 
order to — for the production of— to give encouragement and 
strength for working out in all its members — that personal 

o 5 



298 THE CHURCH HOLY 

holiness, to promote which is the ultimate end for which the 
Church has been constituted hy Christ, 

To this second sense, then, in which the Catholic Church 
is called " Holy," in our Creed, we now address ourselves. ' 
Our Sanctification is the end for which we have he^n justified. 
Our moral perfectness is the object for which we have been 
assumed into favour. The righteousness of Christ has been 
vouchsafed us, through his grace, in order to our becoming 
moulded into the likeness of Christ, by his Spirit. 

And it is just this moulding into the likeness of Christ — this 
communication of Himself, in his moral character, to all the 
members of his spiritual body — by the infusion of his Spirit ; 
of which St. Paul treats in the fourth chapter of his letter to 
the Ephesians, from the seventh to the sixteenth verse, when 
he says, " To every one of us is given grace, according to the 
measure of the gift of Christ — for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the edifying of the body of Christ — that we may grow up 
into him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ ; from 
whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that 
which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual measure 
in the working of every part, maketh increase of the body 
unto the edifying of itself in love." 

Where, you observe, the image employed by the Apostle is 
different from that which in the fifth chapter he uses for illus- 
trating the relative holiness of the church — that image of her 
relation to her Lord, as a bride to her husband, which we 
have already considered at length. And this, because in the 
fifth chapter he treats of the relation of Unio7i in which Christ 
stands to his people ; but in the fourth chapter, of the relation 
of Communion by which he actuates his people. The one 
figure expresses what Christ does for the church, and the 
church is to Christ. The other expresses what Christ does in 



BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 



299 



the church, and the church becomes hy Christ. The one is 
the relation of a husband to his wife — that of affectionate care. 
The other is the relation of the head to the body — that of 
vital influence. 

And thus we learn that the one great end for which the 
church of Christ has been taken into union with him, is the 
diffusion, throughout all its members, of the presence and life of 
Christ himself, even as the vital spirits — the nervous energy — 
are diffused from the head throughout the natural body to the 
quickening, nourishing, actuating all its members into perfect 
harmony and vigour. And that the three chief means by 
which this end is provided for by our exalted Head, are — the 
instructions of his ministers — the fellowship of his people — 
and the infusion of his Spirit. 

The instructions of his ministers. For " He gave " says the 
Apostle, " some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, 
evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfect- 
ing of the saints" {i. e. the finishing them into perfect simi- 
larity with their Lord) ; " for the work of the ministry ; for 
the edifying" (or causing to grow up and expand into its 
proper stature) '^' of the body of Christ." That which Jesus 
himself began to do, while on earth, for his personal fol- 
lowers, that he has commissioned his ministers to do, each 
one according to those particular faculties with which he is 
endowed, and in that particular portion of his church to which 
he is sent. The object of Jesus was to form his followers 
into transcripts of himself. The object of the Christian 
minister is, similarly, to form his people into transcripts of his 
Lord. " Be ye followers of me," says Paul, " even as I also 
am of Christ." And if you would duly estimate both the 
divine authority and the infinite importance, of the work and 
office of the ministry, you must look at it in this light, in 



800 THE CHURCH HOLY 

which St. Paul exhibits it. He who was emphatically The 
Teacher has constituted his ministers as teachers in his name 
and place. " As my Father hath sent me even so send I 
you." " Whosoever receiveth you receiveth me ; and who- 
soever receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." And 
just a similar commission St. Paul claims for the instructors 
of the Christian community, constituted by Christ's Spirit. 
" When he ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto men— and 
he gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan- 
gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers." The Apostle, you 
see, has no notion of a church without ministers') duly autho- 
rized and qualified by Christ. And this because he has no 
notion of the accomplishment of the great end for which a 
church is constituted, (which is the realizing of the presence 
and life of Christ in all its members) without the agency of 
those who are the representatives of Christ ; and concerning 
whom he says in one place, " Do you seek a proof of Christ 
speaking m me f" (2 Cor. xiii. S) and in another, " Now then 
"we are ambassadors for Christ ; as though God did beseech 
you by us, we pray you, in Chrisfs steady be ye reconciled to 
God." 2 Cor. V. 20, 21. 

And therefore, when the Separatist, who makes much of 
the liberty and independence which, he thinks, belong to him 
in Christ, claims for himself an all- sufficiency in his own par- 
ticular mind, by his own unaided powers, or from the well- 
spring of the Spirit in his own single bosom, to educate him- 
self into all the perfectness and ripeness of Christian truth, 
such a man altogether overlooks the way in which Christ 
teaches and the Spirit works. 

For, does he say, I have the Spirit in my heart, and what 
need, therefore, have I of human teaching? He falsifies, by 
that term, " human teaching," the very first step of his argu- 
ment ; and suppresses the fact that Christ has designed the 



BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 301 

ministry of his church to be the channel not simply of human 
teaching but of divine. " For this cause," says St. Paul to 
the Thessalonians, " thank we God without ceasing, because, 
when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye 
received it, not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the 
word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that be- 
lieve." 1 Thess. ii. 13. Nor is it on the ground of his Apos- 
tolical authority, or special inspiration that St. Paul thus speaks 
of himself as conveying to his people truths emphatically divine. 
He expects that this divinity shall be recognized on its own 
merits, through the exercised judgment and spiritual tact of 
those who listen to those truths ; — the Spirit in the heart of the 
hearer responding to, and authenticating, the utterance of that 
same Spirit by the mouth of the Teacher. For he says in 
another place, " If any man think himself to be a prophet, or 
spiritual, let him acknovoledge that the things that I write unto 
you are the commandments of the Lord.'' 1 Cor. xiv. 37. And 
again, " I speak as unto wise men ; judge ye what I say." 1 Cor, 
X. 15. And again, " Seeing we have this ministry, we faint not ; 
not handling the word of God deceitfully ; but by manifestation 
of the truth commending ourselves to every mans conscience in the 
sight of God." 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2. For though, most truly, it is 
the Spirit that teaches all the people of Christ, yet it is not 
merely by what he reveals directly, to even the devoutest and 
most meditative mind; but also, and much more, by what he 
reveals to us indirectly, through the minds of other men, that 
we are schooled in the knowledge of Christ. Cornelius was a 
devout man who prayed to God alway ; and to him there was 
vouchsafed a vision of an angel of God coming in to him, and 
saying, Cornelius, thy prayers are come up for a memorial be- 
fore God. But for what purpose was this communication from 
above ? To give to him in his solitary spirit, a direct revela- 
tion of the Gospel of Christ? to foster in him that spirit of 



302 THE CHURCH HOLY 

independence which persuades men to believe that they are all- 
sufficient to themselves, — and to authorize him to become him- 
self a church to himself? Nay, — but to say to him, " Send 
men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is 
Peter ; he shall tell thee what thou oughest to do" " Immediately 
therefore," says the docile inquirer, to St. Peter, " I sent to 
thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now there- 
fore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that 
are commanded thee of God." And then, while Peter " spake 
the words" which he had been by God commissioned to pro- 
claim, even words of " peace by Jesus Christ ;" the Spirit was 
poured out, through his ministration, on the assembled com- 
pany, and " the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the 
word." Acts xi. 15. 

But, does such a solitary Self-instructor urge, yet further^ 
True ; but this was when the truths of God were treasured up 
only in Apostolic bosoms, and to be obtained only from their oral 
testimony ; we have now these " words" in every man's hands, 
and made accessible to every man's perusal; I have my Bible; 
I have my understanding ; and why should I not read exclusively 
by myself, find out for myself, judge for myself, and for myself 
excogitate the whole detail and compass of the truths of God, 
from the materials thus supplied to me, as well in my private 
chamber, as by means of the public instructions of other men ? 
Then to such a question there is one answer that immediately 
presents itself, which each one will appreciate in proportion as 
he knows himself ; his narrow powers ; his limited information ; 
his experience in all other subjects of investigation; which has 
told him that he can make no solid progress without instruc- 
tion, warning, and various help, from his fellow men. If every 
man can be his own physician, or his own lawyer, then — no, 
not even then — may every man pretend to be his own divine. 
In no department of inquiry is any one mind suflScient to 



BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 303 

itself. And still less can it be so in that wherein, above all 
others,, the judgment is exposed to the influences of the will — 
the understanding is in danger of being perverted by the ima- 
gination and the feelings. The child of sense may not too 
hastily trust his individual perception when applied to truths 
emphatically super-sensuous. The heir of sin will fear to de- 
cide for himself alone upon the force and application of all the 
awful precepts of the Holy One. The eye which is dimmed 
by the mists of earth will gladly — anxiously — avail itself of 
every help by which its view can be extended onward into the 
expanse of heaven. Such is the answer which in every earnest 
humble mind will at once present itself to that too ready, ar- 
rogant, " Why not ? " 

But such an answer, in the case supposed, is precluded by 
that very self-sufficiency out of which the question sprang. 
And therefore our reply to such an one, must be. What says 
the very Scripture itself to which you thus confidently make 
appeal ? When the Ethiopian Eunuch had got his Bible, and 
was reading in his chariot the words of the prophet Isaiah, 
what was his feeling of his power of absolute self-interpreta- 
tion ? Behold it in those words of deep humility, " How can 
I understand except some man should guide me ? " And what, 
yet more, was the method by which God came to the aid of 
this self-mistrusting man, and helped his study of the word ? 
Was it by interior suggestions, — a light from heaven shining 
on the page — a voice from above expounding what he did not 
understand ? No ! " The Spirit said unto Pkili]?, Go near 
and join thyself to this chariot ;" and then the Eunuch " de- 
sired Philip that he would come up and sit with him ;" and 
then " Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scrip- 
ture," and from those very words which the Eunuch could not, 
of himself, make out, " he preached unto him Jesus." Acts 
viii. ^7 — 35. And say not, " This was a case of only inci- 



304 



THE CHURCH HOLY 



pient knowledge, before conversion ; it applies not to the well 
informed spiritual Christian." Was not Apollos " an eloquent 
man and mighty in the scriptures" and " instructed in the way 
of the Lord," and " fervent in the spirit," and one who al- 
ready " spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord ? " 
And yet he knew only the baptism of John ; and when Aquila 
and Priscilla had heard him," they took him unto them, and 
expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly." Acts xviii. 
24 — 26. Nay and at the very same time that John, in his 
First Epistle, reminds the brethren of their attainments in 
Christian knowledge, and spirituality; so that " the anointing" 
he says, " which ye have received abideth in you, and ye need 
not that any man teach you ; but as the same anointing teach- 
eth you of all things, and is truth and is no lie, and as it hath 
taught you, ye shall abide in him," — at this very same moment 
he is writing to them a pastoral letter to warn them against 
false teachers, and to exhort them, " Let that abide in you 
which ye have heard from the beginning ! " It is not even 
knowledge of truth which can render unnecessary to us the 
ministrations of the Heralds of truth. We need continually 
to be reminded of what is familiar to us — to have enforced 
upon us what we already admit — to have opened out to us all 
the bearings of what we at once perceive — to have reflected 
upon us from every quarter, and intensified by every means, 
the light which shall guide our feet into the path of peace. 
And for these things are given to us Pastors and Teachers ; 
" for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the body 
of Christ, till we all come, in the unity of the faith and of the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the mea- 
sure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." " I have not writ- 
ten unto you," says St. John, " because ye know not the truth, 
but because ye know it" 1 John ii. 2L " This second epistle, 
beloved," says St. Peter, " I now write unto you ; in both 



BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 305 

which I stir up your pure minds hy way of remembrancey that ye 
may be mindful of the words which Vt^ere spoken before by the 
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of 
the Lord and Saviour." 2 Peter iii. 1,2. "I am persuaded of 
you, brethren," writes St. Paul, " that ye also are full of good- 
ness, JiUed with all knowledge, able also to admonish one an- 
other ; nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly 
unto you in some sort, as j^utting you in mind, because of the 

GRACE THAT IS GIVEN TO ME OF GOD, THAT I SHOULD BE THE 
MINISTER OF JeSUS ChRIST." Rom. XV. 14 — 16. 

It is then, in the Church of Christ, through the instruction 
of his Ministers, that we must gain that insight into Chi'istian 
truth, which is the first great, indispensable, means to loersoncd 
holiness. Not that God does not, by his secret teaching, set 
home particular truths to particular individuals according to 
their particular needs ; but that no man does he teach in all 
things, all in some ; and therefore, that what is lacking in one 
must be supplied from others ; and what the less furnished por- 
tion of the Community needs for its enlightenment must be 
concentrated before them, by those who are set apart to collect 
from every quarter the scattered rays of heavenly truth. Only 
as we have our eye open to all manifestations, and our heart 
submissive to all impressions, can we be filled and warmed 
with the divine light from above. The truth of Christ comes 
not to us in one full, direct, and overpowering beam of daz- 
zling radiance — it is reflected on us from every side ; it darts 
upon us at various times ; it is compounded of innumerable 
rays ; the main direction of whose course, the authorized and 
sanctified medium of whose communication, is that of the 
" Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers" 
whom Christ has given to his church. 

But are we therefore taught that there is a mystic power 
conferred upon the ministers of Christ — a magic efficacy an- 



306 THE CHURCH HOLY 

nexed to their ministrations ? An influence operating not 
according to the laws of mind and heart, but through a secret 
virtue in the Hierophant to work upon the Neophyte ? Nay ; 
but the words of St. Paul which we are meditating on, while 
they declare to us the necessity of the ministerial office to the 
edification of the body of Christ, exhibit to us as clearly what 
is the essence and the ghry of it. There is in that passage not 
the slightest mention of sacramental mysteries whose efficacy 
depends upon the administrators — there is no limitation of the 
Spirit to some " tremendous" channels of grace which can be 
shut or opened by exclusive guardians of the awful gift — but 
the one end of the ministry is declared to be the bringing men 
to full age in Christ ; and the one means indicated for this end 
is the speaking the truth in love, Christ has given Pastors and 
Teachers to his Church, — ^for what ? — " That we may all 
come, in the wmiy of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son 
of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
the fulness of Christ : that we henceforth be no more children, 
tossed to and fro^ and carried about with every wind of doc- 
trine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby 
they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may 
grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." 
The ministration of Christian knowledge, this is the glory, as it 
is the one grand office, of the Ministers of Christ. It is Chris- 
tian truth which is essential to Christian holiness. For that 
holiness is emphatically a moral holiness ; a holiness, i. e, not 
of rite and ceremony — not of legal acts and abstinences — not 
of blind obedience — not of mechanical observance — but a 
holiness of principle and purpose. And all holiness oi prin- 
ciple and purpose must have its origin in trttth communicated 
to the mind, affecting the heart, and actuating the will. Of 
all the features of Christianity, therefore, this is one of the 
most marked, — that it is a system of instruction, " The grace 



BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 307 

of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men 
teaching us" says St. Paul. Titus, ii. 11,12. " Have ye un- 
derstood these things ? " asked our blessed Lord of his disciples. 
And when they answered, "Yea, Lord;" his reply was 
" Therefore, every scribe which is instructed unto the king- 
dom of heaven is like unto an householder, which bringeth 
forth out of his treasure things new and old." Matt. xiii. 51, 52. 
Even as he had said before, " What I tell you in darkness that 
speak ye in light ; and what ye hear in the ear that preach ye 
upon the house tops." Matt. x. 27. Even as St. Paul exhorts 
Timothy, " The things that thou hast heard of me among many 
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall he 
able to teach others also." 2 Tim. ii. 2. And again, " I charge 
thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge 
the quick and dead at his appearing and his kingdom ; preach 
the word ; be instant in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, 
exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine" 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. 
And this for the very reason that men had itching ears, and 
were inclined to heap to themselves teachers. The rage for 
preaching is to be met, not by undervaluing that divine ordi- 
nance, and taking refuge in dumb shows and ceremonies ; but 
by out-preaching error, through redoubled diligence in disse- 
minating truth, " with all-long suffering and doctrine" 

But we must pass on to the second means indicated by St. 
Paul to the Ephesians (iv. 7 — 1 6) through which the personal 
holiness of the church of Christ is wrought : or, in other words 
the presence and life of Christ is communicated to his people, 
in order to assimilate them to himself. This is, the fellowship 
of his people. 

For the will as much needs the help of others as does the 
mind. The heart can expand into holy aiFections only in the 
exercise of those feelings which towards the Christian commu- 



308 THE CHURCH HOLY 

nity are roused, and in the Christian community are nourished 
and strengthened. As our wisdom flows in upon us not directly 
but through the channels of society ; so also our goodness de- 
pends for its production and support upon the sympathies, the 
warnings, the admonitions, the examples^ the encouragements, 
which are provided in the church of Christ. The separatist 
can as little work out, for himself alone, his moral growth, as 
his mental illumination — his assimilation to Christ's holiness 
as his insight into Christ's truth. How often has this been 
tried by solitary enthusiasts ; but they have found themselves 
unhumanized without being thereby rendered more divine ! 
In spiritual as well as in all other respects, it is not good 
for man to be alone. The very gifts of God come down to 
him through the fellowship of the saints of God. " I long to 
see you," says St. Paul to the Romans, " that I may impart 
unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established. 
That is, that I may be comforted" (edified and strengthened) 
" together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me.'' 
Rom. i. 11, 12. And so in the passage which we are con- 
sidering. After the Apostle had reminded the Ephesians, 
" There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one 
hope of your calling," he goes on to declare that to every 
member of this body, as a member, and because united to this 
community, " is given grace according to the measure of the 
gift of Christ." It is not, you observe, to Christians as sepa- 
rate individuals — it is not to each man as an isolated being, 
dwelling apart in private communion with his Lord alone, that 
this assurance of Christ's presence and inworking is vouch- 
safed ; — but it is to Christians as integrant portions of the 
Christian community, even as our members are integrant por- 
tions of our body, and by their union with the whole, partake 
the nervous influence which through that whole is diff'used. 
Just similarly as, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 



BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 309 

(chap, xii.) when the Apostle had said, " The manifestation 
of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal," he goes 
on to show that he considers this manifestation to be vouch- 
safed to Christians as a hody^ and in proportion to their union 
with each other in that body. For, " all these worketh that one 
and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he 
will. For as the body is one though it hath many members, 
and all the members of that one body, though many, are one 
body, so also is Christ ; for by one Spirit are we all baptized 
into one body, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." 
The whole notion of spiritual gifts is that of a communication 
made to each member of a Christian community because, and 
in proportion as, he forms a part of that one Sphere in which 
the Spirit dwells, and through which he diflfuses the presence 
and life of the Invisible Head. It was when the disciples 
were " all with one accord in one place" on the day of Pente- 
cost, that they " were all filled with the Holy Ghost." It was 
when the Apostles had " gone to their own company," and 
these " had lifted up their voice to God with one accord," that 
" the place was shaken where they were assembled together, 
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." And it was 
when " the churches throughout all Judea and Galilee and 
Samaria were edified,'' i. e. were growing up together into an 
holy temple in the Lord — or to a full formed body in Christ, 
(it is the same term (oifco^ojuajutvat) as in Eph. ii. 22 and 
iv. 16*) — when they were thus consolidating themselves, "and 
walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort" or admo- 
nition " of the Holy Ghost" (i. e. of the pastors and teachers 
through whom the Holy Ghost strengthened and encouraged 

* Eph. ii. 22. " In whom ye also are huilded together {(rvvotKo^o[jt,u(rh) for 
an habitation of God through the Spirit." Ep?i. iv. 16. " From whom the 
whole body — maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself (^oUo^of^hv 
lavrov) in love." 



310 THE CHURCH HOLY 

the people ;*) — it was, I say, when those communities were 
thus enjoying the fellowship of the saints, and the instructions 
of the ministers of Christ, that " they were multiplied." 
Acts ix. 31. 

And yet what would even these means effect but for that 
last particular which the figure used by the Apostle, in the 
passage we are considering, more especially illustrates — the 
infusion of Christ's holy Spirit. It is by the Spirit, remember, 
that Christ specially communicates his presence and life to the 
i:earts of his people. And it is by the Spirit, therefore, that 
he dwells in his universal church ; which is no other than the 
sum or aggregate of his people ; to work in its members that 
personal holiness — that holiness of assimilation to his character, 
in order to which he has taken that church into union with 
himself, and has conferred upon it, by such union, a relative 
holiness in the sight of God. And it is just this infusion of 
his Spirit, in his life-giving energy, " whereby the whole body 
of the church is governed and sanctified" that St. Paul refers 
to as the great means of the church's growth in sanctification, 
when he says, " From whom" — i. e. from Christ as the living 
Head, the source of nervous energy — ^^ the whole body, being 
compacted by that which supplieth every joint," — being arti- 
culated, organized, harmonized f by that pervading Spirit 
which is as the very marrow of spiritual life, — according to 

* t5j '^u.^aKXriffu rou eiyiov mvivi/.u.To?' Compare Acts xiii. 15. "After 
the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto 
them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of eochortation 
{Tx^xKX^ffBoj;) for the people, say on." And Acts xv. 32. "And Judas 
and Silas, being prophets also themselves," (and a prophet is one who " speaks 
as he is moved by the Holy Ghost" 2 Peter i. 21) ^'- exliorted {-rct^ixeiXia-eiv) 
the brethren with many words, and confirmed them." 

+ ffuvK^f^oXoyovfiivov x.ou avfj(.Zi^a.^oy.ivov. literally ; dovetailed, and inserted 
into each other. Comp. Eph. ii. 21. 



BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 311 

the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh 
increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love." 
Eph. iv. 1 6. There is the source of all personal holiness ! 
Hence must a vital union with Christ be gained I By this 
must all communion with him be enjoyed. Without this, 
ministers may teach, and fellow saints may animate — in vain ! 
" If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his ! " 
And this then must be sought by earnest prayer — this must be 
solicited by those devout ejaculations — that rising of the mind 
to high and heavenly things, which enables us to receive the 
words of Christian pastors, as in truth the word of God, effec- 
tually working in us believing it — which makes to us the 
assemblies of God's people none other than the house of God, 
and the gate of heaven ! 

And how far, then, are you, my reader, possessed of this 
life-giving Spirit ? You belong to the Church of Christ. Has 
this great end, for which that church was constituted, and 
from its consecration to which it bears the name of " the hol^/ 
Catholic Church " — has it been attained in you ? In order to 
this you have been brought into sacred relation to your Lord 
— in order to this you have Christ's ministers to instruct you 
— in order to this you are admitted to Christ's ordinances in 
the assemblies of his people — has this end of all those means 
been attained by you ? Are you perfused by that " which sup- 
plieth every joint?" Think it not impossible to answer such 
a question. Fancy not the subject too transcendent to be 
judged of by mortal understanding. Even as life is known by 
its workings, so the life of Christ in you, by his Spirit may — 
yea must — be known. Does your body grow, and wax strong, 
and move with vigour and elasticity, and minister to you, 
through its healthy workings, ease and joyousness? You 
know thence that the vital spirits are equally diffused; that 
"that which supplieth every joint" is duly present in every 



312 THE CHURCH HOLY BY ASSIMILATION TO CHRIST. 

part. And would you then know if Christ is duly present in 
your soul ; as the Spirit of life, with " effectual working in the 
measure of every part ! " Then examine yourself. Prove your 
own self. Look for the practical manifestations of this pre- 
sence in your heart and life. The Spirit himself is inscrutable, 
but " the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness 
and truth ! " " The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." 
" The kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and jo?/ in 
the Holy Ghost ; and he that in these things serveth Christ is 
acceptable to God, and approved of men ! " 



313 



CHAPTER VI. 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 



It has long been the custom in the Church of Christ to re- 
cognize three great Christian graces as comprising the sum 
total of the dispositions which by the Spirit of God are wrought 
in the hearts of those who belong to Christ : — Faith, which 
respects our relation to God above us ; Charity, which respects 
our relation to men around us ; and Hope, which respects our 
relation to the world before us. 

And it is remarkable how frequently the Apostle Paul not 
only makes, expressly, the enumeration, on which this divi- 
sion is based ; but shows by his mode of writing, that he had 
it, on other occasions, in his mind ; and that his thoughts con- 
cerning Christian excellence habitually arranged themselves in 
this threefold form. He tells us, for example, in 1 Cor. xiii. 
13, " And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three." 
There is the theme, distinctly enunciated I But in other pas- 
sages the same arrangement occurs under other forms of ex- 
pression. There is variation and enlargement in the melody, 
but still the fundamental notes are precisely the same. Look 
to Galatians v. 5. " We, through the Spirit, wait for the hope 
of righteousness, by faith ; " which faith, he tells us in the 
next verse, " worketh by love." Look, again, to 1 Thessalo- 
nians, i. 3, where the Apostle assures them that he commemo- 
rates without ceasing before God " their work of faith, and 
labour of love, and patience of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ." 

p 



314 CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 

Turn next to the fifth chapter of the same Epistle, v. 8 ; and 
you find him exhorting them, " Let us who are of the day be 
sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith, and love, and for an 
helmet the hope of salvation." And if you go back to the 
Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, you find him mak- 
ing his praises and prayers to God, concerning their Christian 
dispositions, to turn on just those same three ideas. " I also," 
he says to the Ephesians, i. 15, 18, " after I heard of your 
faith in Christ Jesus, and love to all the saints, cease not to 
give thanks for you ; making mention of you in my prayers 
that ye may know what is the hope to which God has called 
you." And to the Colossians he writes, i. 3 — 5. " We give 
thanks to God, — praying always for you, since we heard of 
your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have 
to all the saints, — for the hope which is laid up for you in 
heaven." 

But further, it is manifest that in this view there is nothing 
peculiar to St. Paul's particular mode of thinking, but some- 
thing involved in the very essence and spirit of Christianity in 
its application to the heart of man. For just the same ideas 
you find recurring together in the writings of another Apostle, 
St. Peter; betokening thus the presence and inspiration of 
the same Spirit — the Spirit of the truth — in both. For St. 
Peter also, in his First Epistle, ch. i. 21, 22, having reminded 
his readers that God had " raised up Jesus from the dead, and 
given him glory, that ih^ivfaithi and hope might be in God,^' 
passes on immediately to the next idea, which was linked so 
closely with these former two in his mind, that along with 
them it rose spontaneously above the horizon of his con- 
sciousness. " Seeing then that ye have purified your souls 
in obeying the truth through the Spirit," (which again is a 
periphrasis for their faith,) " unto unfeigned love of the 
brethren," (which is just St. Paul's notion of faith working 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 315 

hy love J *) " see that ye love one another, with a pure heart 
fervently." 

Such are, according to the word of God, the fundamental 
dispositions which constitute the temper of a Christian man ; 
and evidence the presence and inworking of the Spirit of 
Christ in his soul. And it does so happen that the Apostles' 
Creed, in dilating on the Work of that Spirit in the church, as 
the Vicegerent of its invisible Head, has summed up all that it 
considers important to be confessed, and kept in mind with 
reference to that Work, in terms which imply and point to 
just a similar division. For, as I have already noticed, the 
last four clauses of this Creed do not bring before us separate, 
independent subjects of belief, but are in close connexion with 
that topic of THE Holy Ghost which extends through the 
whole of the third division of this formula of faith ; and 
these four clauses indicate to us as the sphere of the Spirit's 
operations, so also the objects of those three practical graces 
which in that sphere he quickens and sustains — Faith, Hope, 
and Charity. The Article, I say, " The Holy Catholic 
Church," declares the Sphere in which the Holy Gho^ carries 
on the Work assigned to Him as the Communicator of 
Christ's presence and life to his people. And the Articles, 
" The Communion of Saints" — " The forgiveness of sins" — 
and " The resurrection of the body to life everlasting" — 
declare respectively the objects of the several Christian graces 
of Love — of Faith — and of Hope — which in that Sphere the 
Holy Ghost raises up and fosters in the heart ; — Love, which 
regards our Christian relation to our fellow saints in the same 

* For ui here, represents the (piXec.hx<piec, as the effect or consequence of the 
oTBiKovi ryii u,X'/ihia,$. Out of a heart purified by faith flows love to all who 
partake the same precious privilege. For us denoting an effect or consequence^ 
see Matthi^, Gk. Gr. 578. c. Bacc. 1161. tU yiov, us %ot,x,^vot. " so that 
mourning and tears follow." 

p 2 



316 CHEISTIAN CHARITY. 

spiritual body ; — Faith, which regards our Christian relation 
to God as having forgiven our sins ; — and Hope, which regards 
our Christian relation to the world to come, as that wherein 
our whole personality, soul and body, shall partake of everlast- 
ing life. How glorious are these topics I How fundamental ! 
How they penetrate to the very core of the Christian's 
heart ! May God enable us to profit by the consideration of 
them ! 

First then we enter on the consideration of that Love to 
the brethren which the Holy Ghost works in the members of 
Christ ; and which is referred to by that clause of our Creed, 
" The Communion of Saints." 

For, I need scarcely tell you that by the term " Saints " is 
meant here all who name the name of Christ ; all who have 
been admitted into that relation to Christ of which we have 
already spoken, and for his sake are counted, in idea, holy, 
sacred, " sanctified in Christ Jesus." The word " saints " is 
the same as " holy ones ;" and its root is a word which sig- 
nifies separation — a setting apart from uses common and pro- 
fane, to those which are sacred and divine. It denotes, there- 
fore, all those who, through their separation from the sphere 
of darkness and of Satan, and their being brought into the 
region of light, and of God, have poured upon them the 
beams of his complacency, and possess thereby that relative 
holiness which belongs to every person, and even every thing, 
in connexion with Him. Thus, God says by Moses to the 
Israelites ; " Ye shall be holy men unto me" (" men of 
holiness "it is) ; and therefore they were to act difierently, 
even as regarded their food, from the nations round them ; 
" neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the 
field ; ye shall cast it to the dogs." Exod. xxii. 31. So again, 
in Exod. xix. 5, Q, the Lord says to his people, " Now then, 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 317 

if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep ray covenant, then 
shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people ; and 
ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy 7iation" 
Which vepy expressions St. Peter adopts, and applies to 
describe the state and relation of the people of Christ. " Ye 
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a 
peculiar people ; that ye should shew forth the praises of him 
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; 
which in times past were not a people, but are now the people 
of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained 
mercy y 1 Peter ii. 9, 10. And it is in this sense, therefore, 
that the word " saints " is continually, I might say invariably, 
used in the New Testament ; namely to express the multitude 
of those who have given their names to Christ ; — who are bap- 
tized into his church. Peter " came down to the saints " i. e. 
as we should say, the Christians, " which dwelt at Lydda." 
Acts ix. 32. " Many of the saints,'' says St. Paul of the 
Christians, " did I shut up in prison." Acts. xxvi. 1 0. '' Paul," 
he writes to the Corinthians, " unto the church of God which is 
at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia." 2 Cor. 
i. 1. " Now I go unto Jerusalem" he tells the Romans, " to 
minister unto the saints; for it hath pleased them of Macedonia 
and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints 
which are at Jerusalem." Rom. xv. 25, 26. This then is that 
sense of the word " saints," of which it is needful to remind 
you ; both because of the relation which this Article of our 
Creed bears to the foregoing ; for " the Communion of Saints " 
is none other than the fellowship which should be exercised 
among all the members of (what is the same thing) "the holy 
Catholic Church:"* — and also because of the important prac- 
tical deductions which result (as we shall see) from this sense, 

* Sanctam Christianoram Ecclesiam, " communionem sanctorum ' ' fides no- 
minat. Utramque enim idem conjunctim significat. Luther, Cat. Maj. 498. 



318 CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. 

in its bearing on the nature and extent of that communion 
which we are called on to hold with the " saints." 

For by this " Communion of saints " is declared the Sym- 
pathy — Fellowship — and Beneficence, which ought to be exer- 
cised, as between all the members of Christ's one body, so 
especially among those who by the circumstances of time, and 
place, and ecclesiastical connexion, are brought into personal 
contact ; and the existence of which, as it is one of the first 
results, so also is a most indispensable evidence, of Christ's 
presence, by his Spirit, both in the individual Christian, and 
in the churches of the saints. 

This Chapter, then, will comprise Four particulars. The 
Christian Sympathy — the Christian Fellowship — the Christian 
Beneficence, which make up the conception of Christian 
Charity or brotherly love ; and the Derivation of this grace 
from the Holy Ghost, as one of the dispositions which it is his 
office to produce in the Holy Catholic Church. 



SECTION I. 

CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. 

The first thing that strikes us in the primitive community 
of saints at Jerusalem is their Christian Sympathy, or feeling 
for each other as joint members of the same spiritual body. 
" The multitude of them that believed " says the sacred his- 
torian, " were of one heart and of one soul." Acts iv. 32. 
What a striking description of unity and unanimity ! It 
reminds us of the answer of the ancient philosopher when, 
being asked what is friendship ? he replied One soul in two 
bodies. So here we have a " multitude ;" and yet in all this 
multitude but one single heart and soul : the number of be- 



CHBISTIAN SYMPATHY. 



319 



lievers, many ; the spirit, one ; plurality of persons, but unity 
of sentiment, feeling, purpose ; as if all were moved from one 
centre — all actuated by one life. 

Observe, first, the unity of sentiment which this phrase ex- 
presses. This little primitive community actually possessed 
(for a time at least) that to which St. Paul was obUged to 
exhort the Corinthians, as a thing to be pursued ;— " Now I be- 
seech you, brethren, that there be no divisions among you, but 
that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the 
same judgynenV.' 1 Cor. i. 10. And again, to the Philippians ; 
— " Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together 
for the faith of the Gospel." Phil. i. 27. And whence came 
this unity of Christian sentiment, or judgment? I beheve 
from the simphcity of their Christian faith. The grand ques- 
tion of these first converts was, " What must we do to be 
saved?" The simple answer of their teachers was, " Repent 
ye and be baptized" — " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
ye shall be saved." All thought was concentred in that one 
idea, — Salvation. All minds had taken that one step, — Re- 
pentance ; the saving themselves from the untoward genera- 
tion among which they had lived. All eyes were turned to 
that one object, — Christ. All hearts were satisfied with that 
one token of acceptance, — We have been baptized I are mem- 
bers of Christ's body — partakers of Christ's life — expectants 
of Christ's kingdom I And where then was there room for 
divisions, here ? What subject of doubtful disputation could, 
on these points, enter their heads ? Like a multitude of peo- 
ple looking at one object; — all can see the larger, more pro- 
minent features of it ; all receive the same impression con- 
cerning its general form ; it is only when you come to talk of 
the details, you discover that some eyes have been sharper than 
others — or some imaginations more active — or some judg- 



320 CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. 

ments less easily settled — or some wills more ready to make 
up in positiveness, what they feel they lack in certainty^ upon 
the subject. 

And if then, we would possess this unity of sentiment with 
our fellow Christians, let us cultivate this simplicity of belief. 
Let all our interest be fixed just simply on the few main, pro- 
minent features of the Gospel; and we shall find ourselves 
much more unanimous than we will, ourselves, in other states 
of mind, allow. Look to the records concerning dying Chris- 
tians. Reflect on your own states of mind when bereavement, 
or sickness, bring very near to you the unseen, eternal world. 
And say, how many are the points which absorb your attention, 
which eclipse all others ? Yea, say rather, how few they are ! 
how undisputed ! how incontrovertible I how full, how firm, 
how all-sufficient to sustain our mind. " Hell is before me," 
said the high-souled Cecil, when reflecting on his ministerial 
work, " and thousands of souls shut up there in everlasting 
agonies. Jesus Christ stands forth to save men from rushing 
into this bottomless abyss. He sends me to proclaim his 
ability and his love. I want no fourth idea I every fourth idea 
is contemptible ! Every fourth idea is a grand impertinence ! " 

And what a harmony of feeling comes out from this har- 
mony of sentiment. Observe this as the second element of 
Christian Sympathy. Those first Christians were " of one 
heart and one soul." They possessed what St. Paul calls " the 
comfort of love, the fellowship of the Spirit.'' Phil. ii. 1. And 
what he praises when he commemorates in the Colossians 
their " love in the Spirit ; " (CoL i. 8 ; ) and prays for, when he 
intreats for the Corinthians that " the communion of the Holy 
Ghost may be with them all." 2 Cor. xiii. 14. " The com- 
munion of the Holy Ghost ! " How often do we receive, and 
give, this benediction ; and yet how little do we enter into it ! 



CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. 321 

Communion, not simply with the Holy Ghost, and participation 
of his gifts ; but communion also with each other as fellow 
members of one body, through the Holy Ghost — through the 
pervading presence in each and all of that divine Spirit. 

And here again we must ask, Whence did that primitive 
church enjoy this unity of feeling ? Because they were nou- 
rishing in themselves that one Spirit which had been poured 
out on the day of Pentecost ; which was promised by the Apostle 
to each new convert ; and which had been received by them 
through simple faith in Christ. As the Spirit is fostered by 
individual Christians, in that proportion will He display him- 
self in the body which they together constitute. The spirit of 
faith — the spirit of humility — the spirit of love — the spirit of 
prayer — the spirit of hope — how can these come together, in 
different minds, without coalescing ? how can they abound in 
the parts of a congregation without the whole being " of one 
heart and of one soul ? " We cannot indeed command people 
to be of one heart. We cannot by any contrivances cajole 
them into sympathy. But where there is an affinity of feeling, 
their minds will run into each other whenever brought suffi- 
ciently in communication for the principle of attraction, which 
exists in each, to act. What constitutes the harmony of feel- 
ing in a literary society ? Their common love for the same 
subject — books. What that of a philharmonic society ? Their 
individual taste for, and proficiency in, the music, which when 
they come together, they find they can — because of that indi- 
vidual taste and proficiency — perform and relish in concert. 
And when may we look for harmony in a nation ? or in the 
great council of that nation ? Just in proportion, and so only, 
as the education and early training ; and consequently the views 
and principles and feelings, of the individuals who compose 
that nation or that council of the nation, have been similar in 
kind and equal in degree. Assimilate men in mind, and you 

p5 



322 CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. 

assimilate them in heart. Give them unity of principle, and 
you will find them exercising- unity of spirit. 

And hence it is that our blessed Lord, when he prays for 
unity of feeling among his disciples, prays for, as the means to 
this end, their unity of sentiment and knowledge of God. 
" Holy Father, keep through thine own name," or rather. 
Keep m, (i. e. in the knowledge of ) thy name, — thy character 
as it has been revealed to them by me, v. 6 — * " those whom 
thou hast given me, that they may he one, as we are." John 
xvii. 1 1 . Hence it is that the Apostle Paul, when he has ex- 
horted the Ephesians to " keep the unity of the spirit in the 
bond of peace," goes on to remind them of the full provision 
which Christ has made, as a means to this end, for their being 
educated into " the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of 
the Son of God!' And hence, again, that he connects the grace 
of LiOve so inseparably with that of Faith, as the product which 
grows out of it — the form in which its secret energy becomes 
manifested to the world. Our faith is a matter very much be- 
tween us and God, and not easily, by itself, appreciable by our 
fellow men. But its reality, its purity, its vigour, shows itself 
to all by that which is its social exponent, luoye. "Faith" 
says the Apostle, " which worketh by love" — works itself out to 
view, as the hidden life of the seed displays itself by the visible 
flower into which it developes itself. Gal. v. 6.f Even as 
he says again, to Timothy : " The end of the commandment," 
the grand duty that you have to press upon your people, " is 
Charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of 

* " I have glorified thee on the eaxth : — I have manifested thy name to the 
men which thou gavest me out of the world : — I have given them the words 
which thou gavest me : — and now, keep in this thy name those whom thou 
hast given me." John xvii. 4, 6, 9, 11. 

f Vt a.ya'prm In^youfA.ivn ' operatur, vim suam exserit benevolentia ; amo- 
rem efficit. Comp. Eph. iii. 20. 



CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. 323 

faith unfeigned" — that brotherly love, L e. which springs out 
of a mind purified from guilt and at peace with God through 
faith; and therefore at peace with all the children of God. 
1 Tim. i. 5. O how true it is that only as we have just views 
of our own acceptance with God in Christ ; and of the accept- 
ance of our fellow Christians simply through faith in his merits ; 
— only so, can we maintain a feeling towards them of cordial 
brotherly love. Whence come bigotry, divisions, party feel- 
ing ? From narrowness of mind ; from dimness of perception 
of Christian truth ; from the limitations with which, through 
the contraction of their field of vision, men have circumscribed 
the broad plain object of faith presented in the revelations of 
God. When the ecclesiastical antiquarian doubts the accept- 
ance of the Christian who partakes not all his preferences ; or 
the ecclesiastical innovator refuses to worship with those who 
plead for existing institutions ; it is just the same want of faith 
in both — faith in the great fact of acceptance to the penitent 
believer_, not on account of ceremonial privilege, neither on ac- 
count of spiritual purity, but only on account of the sacrifice 
and merits of the One Saviour and Sanctifier of all, Christ 
Jesus. And if we would abound in unity of Christian feeling 
we must learn to look on all who are in Christ as through Him 
united to the Father, and by Him partakers of that Spirit of 
the Father, which makes them God's children, and should 
therefore make them our brethren. " Peace be to the bre- 
thren" says St. Paul, " and love with faith, from God the 
Tather, and the Lord Jesus Christ." Eph.vi. 23. 

And what, then, if with this harmony of Sentiment, and of 
Feeling, there be united a harmony of Purpose, among the fol- 
lowers of Christ ? Then truly are they " of one heart and of 
one soul." For then they have all, whatever their personal 
distinctions, of temperament, or character, or condition, the 



324 CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY. 

same end in view ; and that end simply the service and glory 
of God. And where there is unity of endf there Christian 
sympathy is, not hindered but assisted, by the most extensive 
diversity of means. Unity does not imply identity. Nay 
rather it can exist only amidst plurality and diversity. It is 
the contribution of many minds to the same work. It is the 
joining in of many instruments in the same piece. It is not 
melody, but harmony — and this harmony the more grand, the 
greater the diversity of sounds brought together; the more 
each individual performer is able to throw in a note or strain 
which others cannot reach. Each man with something of his 
own, yet each contributing that something to his fellow Chris- 
tians ; and receiving back from them the something which they 
on their parts can contribute to him ; and all this for a com- 
mon end — the advancement of a common cause — the service 
of a common Master — the production of a common good ;— 
this it is which completes that Christian Sympathy which is the 
first great element of the communion of saints. And by this 
is realized that remarkable promise in the inspired predictions 
of the times of the Messiah ; " They shall be my people, and I 
will be their God, and I will give them one heart and one wayT 
Jer. xxxii. 38, 39. " And I will give them one heart — and 
they shall be my people and I will be their God." Ezek. xi. 
19, 20. 



CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 325 



SECTION II. 



CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 



The second feature of that Christian Charity which the 
Holy Ghost works among the members of Christ, in " the 
Communion of Saints," is Christian Fellowship. This is a 
disposition to count all those as brethren in the Lord who 
Jiave been consecrated to our heavenly Master, and to maintain 
with them a companionship in Christian worship so long as 
they retain their union to their Head, whatever be their per- 
sonal deficiences. Or, in other words, it is the looking on 
Christ's people as " holy," not in themselves, but on account 
of their relation to the Lord ; and for the sake of that relation^ 
yea for the sake of Him to whom they bear that relation, the 
being patient with their errors — with their transgressions — 
yea with their unconvertedness ; and the welcoming them to 
the assemblies of the faithful — joining with them in the 
worship of God — encouraging them to listen to the truths of 
Christ — if thus, by any means, we may win them to that per- 
sonal holiness^ in order to which there has been vouchsafed to 
them, as freely and not more undeservedly than to ourselves, 
their relative sanctity. This, indeed, is a principle which, 
though in all ages recognized and acted on by the general 
church of Christ, has yet too often been rejected, sometimes 
through spiritual simplicity, sometimes through spiritual pride, 
by inconsiderate and self-willed individuals or parties in the 
church. The Montanists of the second century — the Nova- 
tians of the third century — the Paulicians of the seventh cen- 
tury—the Cathari of the twelfth century — the Anabaptists of 



326 CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 

the sixteenth century — the Seceders of some five and twenty 
years ago — and the so-called Plymouth brethren of the present 
day, are all of them instances of that want of Christian love, 
and that withdrawal from the communion of the saints, which 
result from overlooking-, or denying, the Scriptural sense of 
the term " Saints" as including all who have been consecrated to 
the Lord, and who, in virtue of that consecration, are entitled 
to our Christian sympathy, fellowship, and beneficence. 
And yet surely Scriptural example, ecclesiastical practice, 
Christian principle and feeling, all concur to teach us that the 
very nature of a Christian church, and the very end for which 
Christ designed such a society, not only permit, but most im- 
peratively demand, that there should exist a Christian Fellow- 
ship in all matters which relate to religious privilege and wor- 
ship, among the converted and the unconverted, the spiritual 
and the carnal ; just so far and just so long, as they together 
assent to the same faith ; and submit to the same ordinances, 
and reverence the same Lord. 

For, what does Scripture example tell us on this point? 
The very first account of the very first Christian community, 
— the Apostolic Church in Jerusalem — seems to afford to this 
question a sufficient answer. " All that believed" says St. 
Luke ^^ were together" — and they continued daily with one 
accord, i. e. as one body or community, " in the temple ; and 
in breaking bread from house to house." Acts ii. 44, 46. 
And it would be far too much to assume that all this multi- 
tude were at once and already possessed of that degree, or 
even kind, of spirituality, which the Purist in religion de- 
mands as the condition of his joining in the offices of prayer 
and praise. The degrees of faith in those first converts, so 
suddenly shaken into compunction and alarm, and seeking to 
" save themselves from the untoward generation round them" 



CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 



327 



must have been various. And even the very hind of faith, 
(external or internal — mental only or spiritual — that of con- 
viction merely, or that of thorough regeneration of the heart) 
which brought them to the Apostles and to Baptism, must 
have been, as it is in every considerable body of persons, at 
every period of religious excitement, different.* The depth 
of their repentance — the sincerity of their piety — the thorough- 
ness of their conversion — who was able or entitled to judge 
of? '■' Some men's sins," as St. Paul warns Timothy, ^'follow 
after" the judgment we have formed of them — not till occa- 
sion offers is it disclosed, perhaps even to themselves, of what 
spirit they are of. And we actually know, from subsequent 
occurrences, that in this earliest church were those whose 
hearts were not right in the sight of God. And yet we read 
expressly that " they were all together ;" and " continued sted- 
fastly in the Apostles* doctrine, and in fellowship^' i. e. in 
Christian intercourse and communion, t " and in breaking of 
bread, and in prayers.'' Acts ii. 42. 

But more than this. The next account which occurs of this 
same church affords us positive proof of its mixed character. 
For though we are told. Acts iv. 32, that " the multitude of 

* " The very vehemence of the impulse created on this occasion might 
easily carry along with it many in whose minds there was little depth of soil 
— little of that spirit in which the divine seed could take deep root, and grow 
up and expand into full formed piety." See Neander, Geschichte der Pflanz: 
der Christl. Mrche i. 28, 29, 

•f- xoivuvix, from the context, must here indicate the general exercise of 
Christian intercourse. Neander, i. 30. So also Grotius, and Bengel. Breaking 
of bread, and prayer, are given as instances of this communion ; because it was 
in the participation of food, and of devotion, that men specially showed their 
friendship and unity. See Acts xi. 3. Luke xviii. 11. (where ffroc.6i)s -r^og 
loivrov must surely, (notwithstanding the objections collected by Blomfield) 
mean " standing apart by himself," to avoid all risk of contamination by the 
vicinity of the despised publican. For -tt^os in this construction see Matthise, 
Gk. Gr. 591, >?. (^r^aV h'^tocv avToZ trras, Eur. Or. 475) and 578. «. "having 
taken himself apart, to himself"). 



328 



CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 



them that believed were of one heart and of one soul " (speak- 
ing, that is^ generally) ; " neither said any of them that ought of 
the things which he possessed was his own ; but they had all 
things common ;" yet we learn directly after that among this 
multitude there was an Ananias, and a Sapphira. Nor is there 
any hint that any one separated, or ought to have separated 
from the churchy on account of their presence therein, though 
they themselves were punished (but that miraculously) in the 
church. While even among those who still remained un- 
visited by public censure, a spirit of murmuring soon arose, 
" of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows 
were neglected in the daily ministration." Acts vi. 1. And 
when we go on further, to the church which was in Samaria, 
(Acts viii.) we find there a Simon whose gross hypocrisy the 
Apostles indignantly unmasked, and whose thoroughly uncon- 
verted state they solemnly warned him of; and yet there is 
no mention of their excommunicating him; still less of other 
Christians withdrawing from the church because of him ; but 
on the contrary there is the touching, tender admonition of 
St. Peter to him, even in his bitterness and iniquity, " Repent 
of this thy wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought 
of thine heart may be forgiven thee ;" and there is the response 
of Simon, which shows that he still relied upon their Christian 
sympathy and compassion, " Vray ye to the Lord for me, that 
none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me ! " 

But look next to the churches founded, or ruled over, by 
St. Paul. What find you here? The most open censures, 
the most alarming warnings, relating to many members of 
those churches ; — the indignant question to the Corinthians, 
for example, " Whereas there is among you envying and strife, 
and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ? i. e. as 
men of the world — like the unconverted round you ? — the 



CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 



329 



wondering exclamation, again, to the Galatians, " I marvel 
that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the 
grace of Christ unto another gospel ;" — yea, the solemn warn- 
ing, " If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be 
not consumed one of another :" — and yet, so far from a word 
or hint that purer Christians are to separate themselves into 
a private worship because of these enormities in the general 
body, there is on the contrary the express injunction, 
" Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are 
spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; con- 
sidering thyself lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one an- 
other's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man 
think himself to he something when he is nothing, he deceiveth 
himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then 
shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 
For every man shall bear his own burden." Gal. vi. 1 — 6. 

But then, perhaps, it will be answered, Not so, however, 
with the Corinthians. These, the Apostle expressly censures 
for not exerting a salutary discipline, by putting away from 
themselves a wicked person. To which we must reply, first, 
that the point we are now considering is not the duty of a 
church to exercise a proper discipline to the extent of its 
power ; but the duty of individual members of that church to- 
wards all who still (whether rightly or wrongly) are continued 
in communion with it. The question is not what the public 
officers of a Christian community should attempt for its purifi- 
cation ; but how the private members of that community 
should feel and act towards it, even if it be not pure. Paul 
might direct the church of Corinth to assemble together and 
judge concerning the adulterous person, but he does not direct 
the purer members of that church to put themselves out there- 
from till such ecclesiastical judgment was pronounced and 



330 CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 

executed. The exercise of Christian disciphne by a competent 
authority is one thing, the duty of Christian unity and church 
fellowship in those who are under that authority, is quite an- 
other. 

But secondly, to come more immediately to the particular 
case. On whom was that sentence of excommunication in the 
Corinthian church required by St. Paul ? And hy whom was 
it to be pronounced and put in force ? On whom ? Not on 
one whose spirituality simply — nay, or whose conversion — 
was a matter of suspicion ; but on one who by notorious crimen 
before the worlds had openly disgraced the Christian name. 
Not on one concerning whom the whisper had gone round, 
" We doubt if he be a child of God, and how then can we join 
with him in prayer and sacramental rites ;" but on one who 
by his moral delinquency had himself called loudly on the 
church to ratify that self-excision from their body, which by 
his manifest irreligion he had virtually perpetrated. But 
more than this : By whom was this excommunication to be 
pronounced ? Not hy individual members of the church against 
an individual — still less by those individual members commit' 
ting schism aiid seceding from the body, because another indi- 
vidual member had committed fornication and defiled the 
body ; — but by the whole community, as a Church, in solemn 
conclave, with the needful circumspection, deliberation, prayer : 
yea, and this too, not from their own authority merely, but 
under the presidency of the inspired Apostle himself, consi- 
dered as present with them in their spiritual court.* " For I 
verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged 

* " Vult rem agi in conventu publico, ut omnes grayitatem peccati, adeo- 
que justitiam poenae, agnoscerent. Nee tamen multitudo eum excommunica- 
bat, nisi approbando et sufiragando." Estius " Ut intelligamus concilium 
illud ex tribus constare ; ex Pauli decreto, ex consensu multitudinis, ex auto- 
ritate Christi." Erasmus. 



CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 331 

already concerning him who hath done this deed, in the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and 
my spirit^ with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver 
such an one unto Satan." 1 Cor. v. 3 — 5. And therefore to 
this solemn act of the community , as a church, not of indivi- 
duals, on their own responsibiUty, in that church, we must 
refer what he says directly after, " I have written unto you 
not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a 
fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunk- 
ard, or an extortioner ; with such an one no not to eat." For 
this is manifest by the Apostle's own reference to their obedi- 
ence to this injunction, in his Second Epistle (ch. ii. 6) ; 
" Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was 
inflicted by many," i, e. by the multitude of the believers act- 
ing as a public and judicial body. The authority to exercise 
discipline lies in the Church itself. " If thy brother trespass 
against thee," says our Lord, when private remonstrance has 
been ineffectual, "tell it to the Church; and if he will not 
hear the Church, then let him be to thee as an heathen man 
and a publican." It is only when the Church has spoken, that 
the individual members of that Church must act, according to 
her decision. And just so does our thirty -third Article de- 
clare, " That person which by open denunciation of the Church 
is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, and excommu- 
nicated, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faith- 
ful as an heathen and publican, until he be openly reconciled by 
penance, and received into the Church by a Judge that hath 
authority thereunto^ But never is it intimated that if ever the 
Church, whether from neglect, or from necessity, omits this 
discipline, its individual members are thereby obliged, or au- 
thorized, to act upon their own responsibility, contrary to the 
Church. This would be like a private citizen complaining that 
the courts of justice are negligent, or dilatory, or partial, and 



332 CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 

therefore taking the law into his own hands. It is nothing 
less than making Lynch law in the territory of Christ. 

For, take another instance, which shows how, in that same 
church of the Corinthians, the greatest disorders were exist- 
ing, and yet the Apostle counts those who were guilty of them 
as still relatively " saints," and to be treated as such. In his 
Second Epistle, ch. vi. he is reproving those who kept up still 
their intercourse with the heathen, at their festivals ; and he 
exhorts them, " Be ye not unequally yoked together with 
unbelievers." And yet, does he at once strip them of their 
Christian privileges, for this inconsistency ? Nay rather, he 
still addresses them as his children ; (" I speak as unto my 
children," v. 1 3) and the very argument by which he urges 
them not to mix themselves with these profanations is based 
on the assumption that they (inconsistent, guilty, as was their 
conduct) were still, compared with the heathen with whom 
they mingled, as righteousness to unrighteousness — as light to 
darkness — as Christ to Belial — as the temple of God to idols ; 
" for ye," he adds, '^ are the temple of the living God ; as 
God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I 
will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore 
come out from among them" — (in conduct, personally, as you 
have in profession, relatively) — ." and be ye separate'' (and 
what is being separate but being ^' holy ? " — " saints," in cha- 
racter as well as name ?) " and touch not the unclean thing, — 
and cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, 
perfecting holiness" — bringing to its proper consummation in 
personal excellence what has been begun in relative consecra- 
tion — «^in the fear of God." 2 Cor. vi. 14 — vii. 1. Instead of 
these men being cast out from the church for their heathenish 
ways, they were to cast away their heathenish ways because 
they were in the church. 



CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 333 

Such are some few instances (very few of what might be 
adduced) of scripture example, with reference to this point of 
Christian fellowship. It is not needful to detail, in the second 
place, the ecclesiastical practice of all the early Christian com- 
munities in this respect. Suffice it to say, they followed the 
example of the Apostles ; and amidst all their efforts to main- 
tain a rigid discipline, by the institutions of penance, they never 
pretended to take cognizance of the personal spirituality/ of a 
man — his being, in their judgment, a child of God, as indis- 
pensable to communion with him — his constituting one of the 
elect, in order to his being recognized as a brother and a 
" saint ;" — but on the contrary, looking only to notorious deeds 
of obstinate offenders, they proclaimed and acted on this maxim, 
(which one would think that no one who had not a divine 
insight into the souls of men, would wish to controvert,) The 
Church does not take cognizance of secret things ; she has not 
the prerogative, and therefore not the responsibility, of deter- 
mining who is, and who is not, a genuine, indubitable^ child of 
God.* Even as the Apostle Paul himself exhorts the Corin- 
thians, " Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, 
who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, 
and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts ; and then 
shall every man have his award of God" 1 Cor. iv. 5. 

But it is more important to observe, in the third place, how 
the duty of Christian Fellowship with all the Saints is based 
upon the plainest dictates of Christian principle and feeling. 

* De occultis non judicat ecclesia. So also Cyprian, Ep. 46. " Nos, in 
quantum nobis et videre et judicare conceditur, faciem singulorum videmus, 
cor scrutari et mentem perspicere non possumus. De his judicat occultorum 
scrutator et cognitor cito venturus, et de arcanis cordis atque abditis judica- 
turus. Obesse autem mali bonis non debent, sed magis mali a bonis adjuvarV 
See Riddle's Christian Antiq. 584. 



334 CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 

For what is that feeling which forms the essence of the social 
life in a Christian church ? It is the sense of brotherhood in 
Christ — specifically and emphatically brotherhood in Christ. 
The feeling that, with all our individual distinctions — our va- 
rieties of character — our different degrees of unworthiness— t 
our relative merits or demerits — in the eyes of man ; yet 
in Christ we all stand on the same footing as dependents 
on His free compassion — having no hope but in his blood 
— no standing, none whatever, before God but through his 
imputed righteousness — and no right to feel that we are 
among the number of his redeemed, ourselves ; or to be recog- 
nized as among that number by others ; except only as par- 
takers of the wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
redemption, which is — not in ourselves but — in our Lord, 
"For as many of you" says the Apostle, " as have been bap- 
tized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor 
Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male 
nor female ; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.'' Gal. iii. 27, 
28. The Christian therefore, looks on all his brethren as 
" holy" only in Christ — as " saints" only through the purify- 
ing blood of Christ ; and O what a tender sympathy, what an 
imperturbable forbearance — what a wide and extensive charity, 
does this feeling produce ! It is like that which impels and 
nerves the benevolent man to go through all the loathsomeness 
of a hospital without shrinking — nay and the delicate- minded 
woman to endure the abominations of a prison with a strong 
hand laid upon her rising indignation and disgust — because the 
groans in that hospital, and the grossnesses of that prison, 
come forth from beings who, with all their misery, and all their 
deorradation, still are men — like ourselves — of the same kind 
— the same race — the same blood. That single thought is the 
retaining link which holds us in connexion with them when all 
others have snapped asunder. And so, I say, what our com- 



CHe,ISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 335 

inon relation, through the first Adam, is to the benevolent 
heart ; that our common relation, through the second Adam, is 
to the Christian heart. It overlooks all differences, to go 
straight forward to that single point of union. It is gentle, 
patient, easy to be intreated towards personal unworthiness, 
because it dare not — nay it would not — contract the sphere of 
its Christian fellowship into a narrower limit than the sphere of 
its Redeemer's justifying righteousness. The contrary feeling, 
which leads to so much censoriousness and separation, results 
from just the contrary mode of viewing those around us ; the 
looking, namely, at the personal merits rather than the relative 
sanctity of our fellow Christians — the making comparison 
between their apparent worldliness, and irreligion, and uncon- 
vertedness, and our own felt superiority in these respects — the 
being but too ready, in a word, to fee), if not to say, " Stand 
by, for I am holier than thou ! " To all which we can only 
oppose the Apostolic question, (and it is a searching one for 
such) " Who maketh thee to differ from another ? And 
what hast thou that thou didst not receive ? Now if thou 
didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not re- 
ceived it ? " 

But such a Christian spirit not only feels that all are 
equally sacred in Christ Jesus — and only in him — but also 
seeks to benefit all thus united to us by one common bond, by 
the communication to them of the Spirit of our common Lord. 
And thus, the very defectiveness, for which the Purist in 
religion would cast out his brethren from church communion, 
or would withdraw himself, because of them, from that com- 
munion — this very defectiveness is a reason to the earnest 
Christian why he should strive to keep them in that communion^ 
and to keep himself with them in that communion ; — namely 
that thus, hy means of that communion^ this their defectiveness 
may be removed. The Christian church is formed for this 



336 CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 

very purpose, that in its purifying atmosphere the spirit of 
Christ may be inhaled^ and the diseases of the soul may be 
arrested, and men may live. It is not a society of persons 
already perfect; but of those who are brought together in 
order to the process of perfectioning. It is not a society of 
philosophers,, already wise, but of children brought into the 
school of Christ that they may thus be educated into wisdom. 
It is not the kingdom of heaven, into which nothing shall 
enter that defileth, but the training school for the expectants 
of that kingdom, in which they are to be purified into ultimate 
meetness for it. And therefore, the more advanced in the 
Christian life are willing to endure the fellowship of the 
ignorant and the unconverted, that by the blessing of God 
upon that very endurance such brethren may be rendered, 
through the transmission to them of the Spirit of Christ, both 
wise and good. If you expel men from the church for want 
of conversion, or if you withdraw yourself from a congrega- 
tion because you have conversion, and others of its members, 
you imagine, have it not; then what is to become of those thus 
separated from you ? God has ordained that through the 
communion of spiritual men the Spirit himself should be com- 
municated. He has provided that the vital breath in your 
soul should breathe itself into the souls of those who now are 
dead. You are as the electric points in the spiritual atmos- 
phere, from which there radiateheavenly influences. And if 
you separate these men from you, how can they inhale that 
vital breath ? If you interrupt the relation in which Christ 
has placed you to them, whence shall they gain the spiritual 
fire ? What says St. Paul concerning even those without the 
church ? " If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, 
and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her 
away. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth 
not, if he be pleased to dwell with her let her not leave him. 



CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. 



337 



For the unbelieving husband is sanctified" (made relatively 
holi/) "by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified 
by the husband ; else were your children unclean ;" (not 
reckoned among Christ's people ; ) " but now are they holy " — 
inscribed among the " saints." And how much more there- 
fore should this be our spirit to those within the church ! How 
carefully should we remember that we meet together in our 
Christian assemblies, not simply to enjoy ourselves together, but 
to do good to each other : not merely to indulge in devout 
emotions with brethren of similar fervour, but to be helpers of 
each other's faith and joy. "As every man hath received the 
gift so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the 
manifold grace of God." 



338 



SECTION III. 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 



The same concise record sof the spirit and proceedings of 
the first community of Christians, which have furnished us 
with the first two elements of that Christian Charity which 
realizes " the Communion of Saints," presents to us one more 
feature of this grace, which shows how full it is of practical 
Benevolence, as well as of kindly Sympathy, and devotional 
Fellowship. " All that believed," says St. Luke, " were to- 
gether, and had all things common ; and sold their possessions 
and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had 
need." Acts ii. 44, 45. And again : " And the multitude of 
them that believed were of one heart and of one soul ; neither 
said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was 
his own ; but they had all things common. — Neither was there 
any among them that lacked ; for as many as were possessors 
of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the 
things that were sold ; and laid them down at the Apostles' 
feet ; and distribution was made unto every man according as 
he had need." Acts iv. 32, 34. 

Now in these two passages, there is commemorated a certain 
method of procedure with reference to temporal goods, which 
cannot be taken merely as a notice of the accidental practice 
of this one particular church, but which must be looked upon 
as illustrative of a general principle which pervaded it, and 
which should equally pervade all Christian churches — the 
principle of Christian Beneficence, as an essential element of 
that Charity, or Brotherly kindness, which is so manifest 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE.* 339 

and indispensable an evidence of the presence of the Holy 
Ghost in a community of Christ. Even allowing that just the 
very precise method of proceeding itself, here recorded, were 
not binding on our imitation ; yet clearly the principle of that 
proceeding of which this method is the illustration, must find 
for itself a similar, if not the same — an equivalent, if not an 
identical — mode of working itself out into actual life, in every 
community which would not only confess but realize that im- 
portant article of the Apostolic faith, " the Communion of 
Saints." How needful, therefore, that we understand the real 
nature of this method of proceeding — how still more needful 
that in spirit and substance we follow it out ! 

Yet I need scarcely tell you that the real nature of this 
method of proceeding has been frequently misunderstood. 
There^ existed among the Jews, in the time of our Lord, a 
body of men, called Essenes, who held, (among other notions 
which indicate more their rigid earnestness than their en- 
lightened judgment,) the doctrine that in a religious brother- 
hood there should be no distinction of property between man 
and man, but all, relinquishing entirely their private rights? 
should be supplied from a common stock. " It is wonderful," 
says Josephus concerning them, " to observe the complete 
community which exists among them. For there is no one to 
be found among them surpassing the rest in property. For it 
is a law with them that every one entering into their sect 
should divide among them, according to rule, his goods ; so 
that throughout the whole community there may be none dis- 
tinguished on the one hand by the humiliation of poverty, nor 
on the other by the pre-eminence of wealth ; but, the posses- 
sions of each being mingled together in a common stock, there 
should be one property belonging, as to brethren, equally to 
all." 

And it is, perhaps, the knowledge of this Jewish community 

Q 2 



340 CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 

which has influenced many Christians, in all ages, to consider 
that, in the Apostolic church at Jerusalem, we have an in- 
stance of the same principle, adopted by the primitive Chris- 
tians, carried out into the same practice, and commended 
thereby to the imitation, if not actually bound upon the con- 
science, of all who would act out to its full extent the great 
principle of Christian brotherhood. This notion gave rise, in 
the fourth century, to those conventual institutions which 
soon prevailed so generally in the church ; in which the 
brethren, leaving their trades and earthly occupations, and 
bringing in all their hereditary and acquired possessions to 
the society which they joined, lived with each other on a com- 
mon stock, and merged entirely the individual in the com- 
munity. And the institution, in the eighth century, of Ca- 
nonries, or Chapters, of Ecclesiastics living in common, was 
only the application of this same principle more particularly to 
the clerical order.* The Waldenses, again, applied the prin- 
ciple universally to all Christian persons. And there are not 
wanting signs of this same mistake, (as of so many similar 
ones,) among the so-called " Brethren " of the present day. 
While (just to illustrate how curiously extremes will meet) 
you find this same community of goods, this pure liberty and 
equality, this reduction of all to the same level without any 
distinction, so zealously maintained by Romanists on the one 

* These associations were called " Canonries" because the members of 
them were bound to live according to Rule. Or " Canonici Cathedrales^'' be- 
cause the bishop was to them as the abbot to a monastery. Whence also 
their title of " Monasteria Canonicorum." That they included the renunciation 
of private property as well as submission to common discipline appears from 
the causes assigned for their alteration, in 852, when the Chapter of Cologne 
was first permitted to have the control of its own property. " Quod vero 
communis vita in omnibus ecclesiis pene defecit, desuetudini et defectui ad- 
scribendum est, refrigescente charitate, qu«. omnia, vult habere communia^ et 
regnante cupiditate, quae non quserit ea quae Dei sunt et proximi, sed tantum 
ijuce sunt projiria.'''' Ivo, Episc. Carnot : in Gieseler's Ch. History, 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 341 

hand, — and by Spiritualists, or pure Biblicists, on the other— 
at the same time one of the principles of the Atheistical So- 
cialists, who think that all common affection consists in com- 
mon confusion. 

Now, in all these instances, the principle is right ; the rule 
by which it is sought to carry out that principle is wrong. 
The principle is that of the first church, at Jerusalem ; the 
rule is not that of this church. It was in no wise a law of 
that community that each must strip himself of his property in 
order to transfer it to his brethren ; though it was a principle 
of that community — the principle of Christ their Master, — 
that each should love his brethren as himself. And in fulfil- 
ment of this principle, according to the exigency of the parti- 
cular circumstances in which that church then stood — (made up 
as it was, for the most part, of destitute individuals, suddenly 
coming out from the untoward generation round them, and, ac- 
cording to their Lord's injunction, sacrificing the love and 
care of father and mother, and brother and sister, to become his 
disciples) — did those few large-hearted brethren who possessed 
the things of this world gladly give of what they had, to meet 
the immediate wants of such among them as required their help. 
Their Principle was, " Let no man think that ought which 
he possesseth is his own, but held in trust by him for the 
benefit of his brethren also." But their ^ule was not, " There- 
fore let every man renounce his private rights to make a com- 
mon equality, and lose in the general community his individual 
character." The very terms of St. Luke's description show 
that this was not the case. The object proposed, according to 
his account, was to provide that none among them should lack 
any thing ; not that all among them should be equal. And 
from the produce of the things that were sold there was " dis- 
tribution made to every man according as he had need ; " not 
according to any claim of free companionship, share and share 



342 CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 

alike. Observe this, I pray you. The need of those who had 
not, was supplied from the superfluity of those who had — not 
the condition of those who had not, raised by the depression 
to a common level of those who had. 

And what says Peter to Ananias when the latter pretended 
to be as liberal as others,* but kept back part of what his land 
had sold for ? The words of the Apostle at once decide the 
question : " Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart, to lie 
to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the 
land ? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own ? and after it 
was sold was it not in thine own power ? " v. 3, 4. That 
which in one sense, in the sense of benevolent principle and 
feeling, St. Luke says those first Christians counted not their 
own ; (iv. 32) that, in another sense, the sense of property 
and right to employ it, whether wholly or in part, according to 
their own judgment, St. Peter says most clearly was their own. 
The selling, therefore, of their lands and houses, and the 
bringing of the proceeds to the rulers of the Church for dis- 
tribution among the poorer brethren, this was manifestly an 
act of voluntary henevolence^ not of enforced equality ; — resulted 
from the spontaneous impulse of the principle of charity di- 
rected to the special exigencies of the moment ; not from any 
obligation.^ imagined or imposed, to strip themselves off to the 
nakedness of those around them. They might sell or not sell 

* It is this ostentation of liberality wliicli St. Paul seems to censm-e in 
1 Cor. xiii. 3, when he says, " though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 
and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." Which passage, again, shows 
that the distribution of alms was not a necessary thing, demanded of all ; but 
a voluntary exercise of goodwill. For what merit or distinction could any one 
claim for doing that which all were obliged to do ? It is probably against a 
similar ostentation of liberality without a spirit of charity that the Apostle 
warns the Romans, ch. xii. 8, 9. "He that giveth, let him do it with sim- 
plieity ;" without trick and artifice ; not for display and selfish motives, but 
from pure unmixed benevolence. And again, " Let love be without dissimtt- 
lation.'''' 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 343 

as they pleased. They might sell or not sell any part that 
they pleased. The principle was bound upon their conscience 
— and it is equally so on ours. The mode of carrying out that 
principle was left to their individual judgment — and it is 
equally so to ours. And the very next notice that occurs of 
this matter, in Acts vi. 1, at once shows that not generally^ to 
all the members of the church, as having equal rights, but 
only specially^ to those who were in need, was the distribution 
of these generous contributions made. It was to the widows^ 
— for whom there was no husband to work — that the daily 
ministration took place. It was for the supplying them with a 
needful daily meal-, (for this is intimated by the expression 
"serving tables," vi. 2,) that the Deacons were appointed. 
While, on the other hand, if you go on to the twelfth chapter 
of the Acts, V. 12, you will find that "Mary, the mother of 
John whose surname was Mark," a member of this same 
Jerusalem church, possessed a house^ to which Peter came 
when he had been released from prison, and the door of which 
was opened to him by her servant^ " a damsel * named Rhoda ;" 
these facts furnishing one plain instance of property not sold, 
and labour not dispensed with, and social distinctions not 
efikced. 

The fact is, that the principle of Beneficence exerted itself 
in the Jerusalem community in a practice very analogous (in 
kind though not in degree) to that which our ancient poor- 
boxes in the churches, and our still existing sacramental col- 
lections, have carried on to the present day ; — that, namely, of 
the richer members of the community contributing of their 
substance to the poorer, as an offering for them in the name of 
our common Lord, that none among us may lack. And it 

* UaiViffK'/i^ a female servant. Cf. Matt. xxvi. 69. Luke xii. 49, " the 
men-servants and maidens." John xviii. 17, "the damsel that kept the 
door." 



344 CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 

was just the working of this same principle, in a similar man- 
ner, which produced the early Christian love-feasts, or com- 
mon meals of brotherly affection — the public dinners, at the 
cost of those who could afford them, supplied for the advantage 
of those who could not. It is such a joint participation of 
daily food which seems commemorated in Acts ii. 42, 46 ; 
*' they continued stedfastly in breaking of bread ; — and break- 
ing bread from house to house did eat their meat with glad- 
ness and singleness of heart." And it is the ungenerous and 
indecent conduct of many of the Corinthians at these social 
meals, the bond at once of Christian communion, and the 
medium of Christian charity, that St. Paul reproves, when he 
says, " What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in ? " 
(there was personal property !) " Or despise ye the church 
of God, and shame them that have not ? " (there were the 
poor of the community, who, not possessing property, should 
Tiave been gladly welcomed and relieved by them at the feasts 
of charity !) 1 Cor. xi. 21, 22. 

Nor have we a less clear instance of the mode in which the 
Beneficence of the early Christians was exercised, in the prac- 
tice for which St. Paul commends the churches of Macedonia, 
when he says that "to their power, yea, and beyond their 
power, they were willing of themselves ; praying us with much 
intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the 
fellowship {Koivioviav, Rom. xv. 26) of the ministering to the 
saints," 2 Cor. viii. S, 4, which practice, again, he presses on 
the Corinthians, when he writes to them, "Now concerning 
the collection for the saints — upon the first day of the week 
let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered 
Mm, that there be no gatherings when I come." 1 Cor. 
xvi. 1 , 2. The principle on which this Beneficence was to be 
exercised he expounds to these same Corinthians, when he 
savs, " I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened, 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 345 

but hy an equality, that now at this time your abundance may 
he a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a 
supply for your want, that there may be an equality ; as it is 
written, He that had gathered much had nothing over, and he 
that had gathered little had no lack" 2 Cor. viii. 1 3 — 1 5. 
Concerning which contribution, moreover, he expressly adds, 
" Let the same be ready as a matter of bounty, and not as of 
covetousness. Every man according as he purposeth in his 
heart, so let him give ; not grudgingly, or of necessity, for 
God loveth a cheerful giver." 2 Cor. ix. 5, 7. Can anything 
show more clearly that there was no rule upon the subject — 
no general division of property — no obligation, as a condition 
of church communion, for any one to resign his own posses- 
sions into a common stock ? The only appeal which the 
Apostle makes, to quicken their beneficence, is not to present 
obligation, but to future accountableness : " This I say, he 
which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which 
soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." 2 Cor. ix. 6. 
Even as he writes to Timothy, " Charge them who are rich in 
this world," (there was then still the distinction between rich 
and poor, in the Church of Ephesus also,) " that they be not 
high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches ; that they do good, 
that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to 
communicate, (koipojvikovq) laying up in store for themselves a 
good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay 
hold on eternal life." 1 Tim. vi. 1 7 — 1 9. 

The " community of goods," then, which existed in the 
Apostolic Christian churches, was a communication of all 
needful aid^ to all the brethren, according to the exigencies 
of time and place, and circumstance. Each separate commu- 
nity formed a common fund for the relief of its poorer mem- 
bers. And all the communities were excited to contribute to 
the wants of their sister churches, in proportion as the balance 

q5 



346 CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 

of prosperity on the one side and of destitution on the other 
required. Hence the distribution made in the church of Jeru- 
salem " to every man according as he had need." And hence 
the contributions solicited from the more opulent Gentile 
churches, for the help of this same destitute Hebrew commu- 
nity. Gal. ii. 10. Rom. xv. 25, 26. 

And O that while we hold right views of the nature of this 
" community of goods," we were equally filled with all the 
fervour of the principle from which it flows ! The principle, 
that no one may say that ought of the things which he pos- 
sesseth is his own ! The conviction, that whatsoever, in God's 
good providence, is vouchsafed to us, is so vouchsafed to us, 
not for our independent and self-willed use, but as stewards; 
for distribution among our fellow-men, according to the urgency 
of the demand which their necessities, whether spiritual, moral, 
or corporeal, make upon us. For all is given us by God. 
And given, too, under this condition- — devised to us, as it 
were, with this rent-charge on the estate — that we pay out 
due allowances to the less well provided members of the 
family of Christ. The duty of communicating, being im- 
posed upon us by that same deed which conveys to us the 
right of enjoying, the blessings which our common Father 
makes over to us. Even, therefore, that which we use for 
ourselves (1 Tim. vi. 17), and that which we reserve for our 
children (2 Cor. xii. 14), (though both are lawful,) we must 
use, and we must reserve, not as our absolute private right 
but as allowed to us by the divine Lord paramount of all, just 
to such an amount, and just for such a period, as is consistent 
with a due regard to the welfare of the other members of that 
same body of which we form a part. The individual must 
not, indeed, renounce his individuality ; but he must exercise 
that individuality only in harmony with the general good. 
Private rights and public must coincide. 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 347 

There are, indeed, two distinct views of society. The one 
a false and fanatical one. The other, that of Christ and his 
Apostles. The one treats men as things ; — mere units in an 
aggregate mass ; as in the Spartan commonwealth — the con- 
ventual societies — the schemes of modern spiritual Brother- 
hood, and most unspiritual Socialism. The other treats men 
as persons ; — responsible members of an organized whole. 
The one, therefore, destroys all distinctions of character, 
station, rights, and property. The other demands that these 
distinctions shall be held in subservience to the general good ; 
— nay shall be made to work together to its increase. With 
the Socialist, who denies all personal responsibility, community 
of goods, — community of every thing even as the herds of un- 
reasoning animals — is but consistent. With the monkish 
ascetic, who merges the will of the individual in the will of 
the community, making obedience and self-abnegation the 
height of Christian virtue, the community of goods is still con- 
sistent. But with the Christian — who feels himself though 
one of a body of men, yet still a self-governing individual, 
accountable direct to God for his particular gifts, such commu- 
nity cannot consist. For the Christian " Communion of 
Saints" is not a fusing all separate wills into one general will 
— so that no judgment shall be exercised, no act shall be per- 
formed, no right shall be enjoyed, but by the church : but it 
is the joint action of all separate wills in harmony with the 
ends presented by the general will ; so that all the faculties 
and energies of the individual shall be consecrated to the wel- 
fare of the community. It is not, therefore, the renouncing 
our rights, possessions, and powers ; but it is the holding 
those rights, possessions, and powers, as entrusted to us for 
the benefit of others as ourselves. " All things are lawful for 
me," says the Apostle, " but all things are not expedient : all 
things are lawful but all things edifi/ not. Let no man seek 
his own but every man another's welfare." 1 Cor. x. 23, 24. 



348 CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 

And hence arises our awful responsibility. Just from this 
fact, that there is no Rule in the Christian church, for " Com- 
munity of Goods ;" and yet that there is a Principle, which, 
if properly followed out, will make us hold our several posses- 
sions as not our own, but as made over to us in common with 
our brethren, — just from this fact springs the solemn necessity 
for every Christian to ask himself, What am I about, in this 
particular of Christian Charity? what is my principle, and 
practice, with reference to this essential element of that 
Charity, Beneficence ? The less external the obligation 
under which we lie, the more need is there of internal self- 
examination. Because the nature and measure of the bene- 
volence which we should exercise are left so much to our own 
personal judgment, and this judgment is so much in danger of 
being warped by the selfishness of our fallen nature, and by 
the custom of our fellow-men. And is it not so warped? 
Are not our charities regulated far too much by what is ex- 
pected from us — than by what we really are able, with due 
self-denial, to give ? I fear that what we yield to our brethren 
is more of the nature of a quit-rent — a pepper-corn acknow- 
ledgment — of our holding under God, that we may be left 
undisturbed in the enjoyment of the vastly disproportionate 
remainder; than from the full, free, impulse of a generous 
brotherly kindness. What would you think of one who, in a 
grievous famine, having a vast store of corn, should dole out 
some few bushels to the perishing, but still keep the mass of 
it locked up, because it was " his own ? " And what then shall 
we think of the Christian who, amidst the pressing demands 
which — not his brethren only, but his God, to whom he owes 
his all, is making, for the relief of the indigent — the encou- 
ragement of the industrious — the education of the ignorant — 
the pastoral care of the spiritually destitute — the conversion 
of the sinful — the enlightening of the heathen — the doing good 



CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE. 349 

in all its various forms throughout the earth, — shall satisfy 
himself with just decently yielding to entreaty^ not his house 
and lands, nor even one single comfort that he would really 
miss, but merely the overflowings of his superfluity ? We are 
stewards of God, remember ! We are legatees under the will 
of Christ our departed Lord ! And in that will there is no 
clause more clear than this — " I give and bequeath to you 
every blessing, with this proviso, that you take care of the 
other members of my family — that you count your possessions 
* common' to all for whom I have shed my blood. I prescribe 
not the portion each must have, but / commit them, to your 
guardianship. To your cordial sympathy — to your deliberate 
judgment — to your zealous watchfulness, I entrust their in- 
terests, on your solemn responsibility as you value your eternal 
salvation ! ' For I have given you an example, that ye 
should do as I have done to you.' ' This is my command- 
ment, That ye love one another as I have loved you ? ' " 



350 



SECTION IV. 

CHRISTIAN CHARITY A WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

We have seen now that in confessing in our Creed " the 
Communion of saints " we are acknowledging our obligation to 
abound in one of the three cardinal graces of Christianity, 
Charity, or Love. And this too in its threefold manifesta- 
tion as Christian Sympathy — Christian Fellowship — Christian 
Beneficence, towards all our brethren in the Lord. 

But this " Communion of saints " is set forth to us, in the 
Creed, in connexion with the holy Catholic Church, as the 
sphere in which the Spirit of God fulfils his office. We have 
therefore still to see how this Charity, or brotherly love, is 
specially a work of the Holy Ghost in the members of 
Christ. It is no mere natural disposition, but a divinely in- 
fused grace ; and its developement therefore must be fostered 
in us by devout and sedulous culture. 

First, It is no mere natural disposition, hut a divinely in- 
fused grace. 

For this charity of which we have been treating is not 
merely that constitutional good-heartedness — that kindliness of 
temper — which is sometimes, — nay and often, — the accom- 
paniment of a well-balanced physical organization, and spreads 
the charm of its hilarity (even unmarked by the happy pos- 
sessor of it) over every person and thing with which it comes 
in contact. This is most winning. It is an inestimable natural 
gift. It may be made the handmaid of the highest Christian 
grace. It will shed the fragrance of its balmy breath over all 



CHRISTIAN CHARITY A WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 351 

the intercourse of social life. But it is not that deliberate, 
steady, principle of benevolence which the Scriptures mean by 
Charity, or Love. 

Nor will this principle be found in that prudential good-fel- 
lowship which, in the ordinary commerce of society so often 
and so well stands substitute for that natural amiableness. 
No one who mixes with his fellow-creatures cari long be 
ignorant that to receive from them attentions and beneficence 
he must himself be towards them attentive and beneficent ; 
that society is a sort of joint- stock company to which if any 
one do not contribute his own share, and pay up his calls, he 
has no claim upon a beneficial interest in the shares of other 
men ; that self-will, and moroseness, and an overbearing 
temper will work for him their proper punishment by freezing 
up the heart of those towards whom they are exercised ; and 
consequently, that even as a matter of self-interest — as a 
necessity established by the law of social reciprocity, he who 
is not prepared to make continual sacrifices of self — nay and 
assiduously to cultivate the good-will of his companions — 
must be content to withdraw himself from their society into 
the undignified seclusion of his own sufficiency. And hence 
there is an amount of mastership over self — of readiness to 
help and gratify others — of prudent forgetfulness of the indi- 
vidual in the community, — acquired in social intercourse, 
which shows both how indispensable such a disposition is to 
the very existence of society, and also to what an extent it 
may be cultivated when a sufficient motive operates. The 
self-forgetfulness, self-control, yea even self-renunciation exer- 
cised in polished life, might put to shame many a spiritual 
man. But still, this is not that Charity, or Love, of which the 
Scriptures speak. 

Neither is this Christian disposition supplied by those 
higher feelings of grateful affection, of which the heart is 



352 CHRISTIAN CHARITY 

susceptible towards those who show us kindness. Such affec- 
tion is indeed a lovely feeling, and it communicates a warmth 
and sweetness to social intercourse, inestimable. But still, 
the more narrowly you examine it the more you will discover 
that it has not the hardiness to bear up under chilling blasts, 
which marks a genuine benevolence. The heart the most 
sensible of kindness is just that which is the most sensible 
also of its withdrawal, or decay. It has a warmth which may 
be kindled easily to evil as well as good. And the glow 
of gratitude for affection accorded, may but too readily give 
place to the fire of resentment for affection denied. And if 
indeed it be true that persons cannot keep on loving one 
another, in this sense, without some reciprocity, some per- 
ception, or at least imagination, of return ; this at once shows 
the selfish ground in which the warmest affection has its base. 
*' If ye love them only which love you, what thank have ye? 
Do not even the publicans the same ? " 

Nor must we give the name of genuine Christian love 
to even the most generous sympathies of purest friendship. 
For this, too, comes from recognizing in another either the 
reflection, or the supplement, of ourself. It springs from, 
and it is sustained by, similarity of sentiment, and feeling, 
and pursuit ; or else diversity just to such extent, and just in 
such particular points, as helps to fill up the deficiencies of 
our own character, and enables us to find in conjunction with 
another that completeness which we have not in ourselves. 
True there is much that is noble in this reciprocity of mind 
with mind, and heart with heart. True it is the solace of 
existence — the refreshment of the soul — the parent of high 
thoughts and lofty deeds. But still it is not that heaven-born 
temper which the Bible speaks of as the mark of a child of 
God. One single criterion is enough to settle the question as 
regards all these feelings. Was the love of Jesus towards 



A WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



353 



mankind — was the " charity so dear " which warmed the 
bosom of the Son of God — the offspring of either natural 
amiableness only — of prudential courteousness — of reciprocal 
aifection — of pure esteem ? Was there any thing in the 
nature of that deliberate self-sacrificing love similar to the 
first two of these qualities? Was there any thing in the 
nature of the beings whom he loved that could develope 
or deserve the last two ? 

Nor, then, is the love to which the Christian is called the 
unconscious overflow of a kindly temperament — or the la- 
boured product of a well-taught prudence — or the soft melting 
of a sensitive nature — or even the well pleased homage of a 
devoted friendship ; but it is the offspring of a new principle 
infused into the soul and working itself forth into the life ; — a 
principle derived from altogether new views of our fellow- 
creatures, and of our relation to them ; — a principle which 
has power to supply the deficiency of natural kindness, yea to 
counteract the opposite temper ; which works from motives 
far above the calculations of our social interest \ which not 
merely without gratitude can be quickened, but against ingra- 
titude can live on ; and which expands to embrace a sphere 
far wider than the sympathies of friendship, and the confined 
devotedness of congenial minds. It is the principle which St. 
John propounds to us when he says, " This commandment 
have we from him. That he who loveth God love his brother 
also." 1 John iv. 24. It is the principle which the same 
Apostle presses to an extent which nothing merely human will 
ever reach ; " hereby perceive we the love of God, because he 
laid down his life for us ; and we ought to lay down our lives 
for the brethren." 1 John iii. 16. It is the principle which 
actuated Paul notybr, but clean against^ his personal interests, 
yea, and his best affections ; as he tells the Corinthians, " I 
will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more 



354 CHRISTIAN CHARITY 

abundantly I love you, the less I be loved V^ % Cor. xii. 15. 
And accordingly it is a principle which St. John, again, recog- 
nizes as an indispensable, and at the same time a sufficient, 
evidence of a new nature planted in us — a birth from above — 
an infusion from God himself. " For love is of God, and 
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." 
1 John iv. 7. Pause for a moment on that remarkable decla- 
ration. Can human amiableness, or courteousness, or tender- 
ness, or friendship claim for itself to mark out its possessor as 
indubitably a child of God? Are not each, and even all^ 
these amiable dispositions found in those who in many other 
ways proclaim that they know not God? Are not some of 
the most intense actings of the most winning of those disposi- 
tions too often indulged in at the expense of all that pleases 
God? And yet love — true love as a Christian grace — is 
given as an unequivocal proof of piety — is set forth as the 
very breath of God himself in the soul. " If we love one 
another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected," works 
itself out to view in manifest developement, " in us I " 1 John 
iv. 12. 

In a word then, this disposition is none other than the dis- 
position of Christ himself. It is " the mind which was in 
him," (Phil. ii. 5) — the temper purely spiritual in its origin 
and exercise — the free, gratuitous, and unconquerable Charity, 
— which brought down from the heights of glory the Eternal 
Son of God, to make himself of no reputation, to take upon 
himself the form of a servant, to be made in the likeness of 
men, to become obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross, because — and purely because — " he loved his own and 
loved them even to the end / " O how different this in kind 
from every other amiable emotion ! " When we were yet 
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly ! 
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; though perad- 



A WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 335 

venture for a good man some would even dare to die ; but God 
commendeth his love towards us" (displays its glory beyond 
all other kinds of kindness) " in that while we were yet sinners 
Christ died for us" Rom. v. 6 — 8. O to feel this divine 
love as it is exercised towards ourselves, that we may be im- 
pelled the more to exercise it towards our fellow sinners I O 
to understand how He has first loved us, that thus, imbued 
with the disposition we adore, we too may love our God and 
love our brother also ! 

But since true Christian love is nothing less than the dis- 
position of Christ himself, infused into our soul, you see now 
how, and why, its birth and sustenance within us must be 
looked on as a work of the Holy Ghost in the members of Christ, 
We have seen, in a former chapter, how it is the special office 
of this Divine Being to make Christ himself present in his peo- 
ple. And this he does by forming and fostering in them the 
mind which was in Christ; — the same dispositions in kind 
(though alas, far short in degree^ which characterized the 
spirit of that perfect — that divine — man. Christian Charity, 
therefore, is nothing less than the love which dwelt in Christ ; 
and the Author and Sustainer of this Charity is no other than 
He whose office it is to form Christ in our souls, in all his 
human and communicable graces. 

And hence this grace of Love is so constantly ascribed in 
Scripture expressly to the Holy Ghost. " The fruit of the 
Spirit'* says St. Paul, " is Love." Gal. v. 22. The love, too, 
which he presses on the Philippians he calls emphatically " the 
fellowship of the Spirit" — a fellowship or communion of the 
saints, produced, sustained, enjoyed by the co-presence of the 
Spirit of Christ in each and all. Phil. ii. 1.* The affec- 

* xmuv'ta, -^rvivfAKTos ' Si inter vos ipsos, et inter vos et me, vere sit 
Kot)iuviex, spiritualis, sub uno capite, Christo, per unum Spiritum, conciliata. 
Zanchius. 



356 CHRISTIAN CHARITY 

tion, again, by which he urges the Romans to pray for him, 
he calls, just similarly, " the love of the Spirit."* Rom. xv. 
30. And the zeal which warmed his own heart in his minis- 
terial calling, and which he sought to stir up, in the languid 
Timothy, towards the perishing souls around him, he ascribes 
to the same source — " God hath not given us the spirit of fear, 
but of power, and of love." 2 Tim. i. 7. While the close 
connexion between the energetic presence of the Holy Ghost 
and this uncalculating, and therefore unhesitating, love for 
our fellow sinners, is shown in another place by the mere 
juxtaposition of the terms of the Apostle's" rapid eloquence, 
— " approving ourselves the ministers of God, by long suf- 
fering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned^ 
2 Cor. vi. 6. 

But when we thus read of Charity as an infusion of the 
Holy Ghost, is it thereby intended that this grace will be 
enjoyed by us without that earnest seeking and that watchful 
care which God expects from us as to all his gifts ? 

No ! For the Scriptures equally show to us (and this is the 
second particular which in this section we press) that the deve- 
lopement of this grace in us must be fostered hy devout and sedu- 
lous culture. 

For it is no self-developing, or self-maintaining energy^ of 
which we speak; — as if we had nothing to do but, having 
received the gift of God, to lie idle and let it work. It is, 
like all his gifts to sinful man, exposed to too much opposition 
both from within ourselves, and from the world without us, to 
allow of this. " The grace of God in the heart of man " 

* i. e. The love infused by the Spirit into the members of Christ ; 
Christian love ; Brotherly kindness. " Mutua ilia conjunctio qua Spiritus 
Sanctus animos nostros devinxit ; quam vocat communionem Spiritus, Phil.ii. 1, 
unde Christiana ilia (rvi^-Tra-kicc. Beza. 



A WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 357 

says Archbishop Leighton, " is a tender plant in a strange 
unkindly soil; and therefore cannot well prosper and grow 
without much care and pains, and that of a skilful hand and 
that hath the art of cherishing it." 

And do you ask How ? By what means ? must I foster 
this heavenly grace ? I answer, first, by cherishing towards 
your brethren a sacred reverence as towards children of God. 
I do not say " respect," because that word is far too tame and 
cold to express that feeling, little short of awe, with which, I 
think, each Christian should regard his brethren, as con- 
secrated to the service, yea received into the family, of the 
Lord of Hosts. We are accustomed to look with reverence 
«n places, and on things which are counted " holy." Shall we 
not extend this feeling towards every person who has been 
brought into so sacred a relation with our heavenly Father, as 
that which is implied, nay proclaimed, in his being a member 
of " the holi/ Catholic Church ? " "I have tried " said the 
loving Wilberforce, " this principle of looking out for and 
expecting something responsive to affection in all my brethren ; 
I have tried this untiring determination to discover in every 
one something that would ring of genuine feeling ; and never 
but in two instances, through a long life, did I even seem to 
fail." And O how ready would such a feeling make us to 
concede to our brethren privileges which we claim for our- 
selves ; — to beUeve that they too, as well as we, may possess 
some influences of the Spirit of God ; — to regard even their 
differences of sentiment, or of conduct, from ourselves, as 
diflPerences with which no one but our common Father has to 
do. " Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, 
and let not him that eateth not despise him that eateth ; for 
God hath received him'' Rom. xiv. 3. 



358 CHRISTIAN CHARITY 

But next, in order to the nourishment of Christian Charity, 
cherish a patient forbearance towards your brethren, as mem- 
bers of Christ. " Walk worthy," says St. Paul, " of the 
vocation wherewith ye are called; with all lowliness and 
meekness, with long-suffering, forhearing one another in love, 
endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of 
peace" Eph. iv. 1 — 3. That social harmony, that " commu- 
nion of saints " which results from the presence of the Spirit 
in each and all, can be preserved from disruption, can be 
kept compact, only by throwing around it the bond of a 
2oeaceful, gentle, forbearing temper. And how can such a 
temper be maintained so effectually as by keeping in our 
mind, and skilfully bringing out continually to view, our 
common relation to one gracious Master : repeating to our- 
selves with patient steadiness the wondrous thought how 
Christ who has borne with our unworthiness is bearing also 
with the sins of those around us whom we least approve. I 
know no one recollection so efficient to save us from angry 
impatience with erring brethren ; — from hasty throwing up 
our hopes concerning them ; — from iron-hearted readiness to 
Cast them out from us at once as heretics or reprobates ; — as 
this one touching truth, for such, Christ died ! Such, Christ 
himself has not yet given up ! to such, Christ continues oppor- 
tunities of mercy, invitations of compassion ! such, Christ 
may by his secret power convert from monuments of wrath 
into monuments of grace T * 

*^ How consonant with such a feeling is the advice of (Ecolampadius to 
Farel. " Learn to temper the boldness of the lion with the gentleness of the 
dove. Men may be led, but will not be driven. Let it be our one object to 
gain souls to Christ : and let us consider in what manner we ourselves should 
wish to be instructed if we were yet in darkness, and under the bondage of 
Antichrist. Endeavour to exhibit the very image of Christ in your life ; I 
mean now, especially, by copying him as a teacher. He was indeed severe 
towards the Pharisees — a race of men who were deaf to reproof : though even 



A WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



359 



Does such a patience seem to tolerate error ? — sacrifice the 
interests of hohness ? — weaken discipline ? But was St. Paul 
the man to do all this ? And yet what says St. Paul concern- 
ing, not erroneous simply,, but even malignant, opposers of 
truth and holiness ? (O exquisite passage ! O touching ex- 
hibition of the spirit of Christian love I) " The servant of 
the Lord must not strive ; but be gentle unto all men ; apt to 
teach, 'patient-) in meekness instructing those that oppose them- 
selves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the 
acknowledgment of the truth ; and that they may recover 
themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken 
captive by him at his will I" 2 Tim. ii. 24 — 26. Alas ! we 
are too apt to feel towards people as they present themselves to 
our present perceptions ; without any thought of what, through 
God's good Spirit, they may become. We are too apt to count 
them as enemies, while still God keeps them among us as 
brethren ; instead of treating them as brethren, even when 
they show themselves enemies. There is some worth in' that 
political rule : Live with your enemies as with men who may 
one day become your friends. There is a worth in it if we 
baptize it ; — if we transform it from a maxim of political 
prudence into a law of Christian forbearance. If we word it, 
— Let not their personal^ efface to you their relative-^ cha- 
racter. Let not the frown upon their countenance altogether 
hide from you the cross upon their brow I Then will your 
vexation at their errors; — your disapprobation of their de- 
fects; — yea your abhorrence of their sinfulness; — take the 

to them lie was not so harsh as some make his words in Matthew xxiii. to 
exhibit him : but he conveyed some things through the medium of lamenta- 
tion over sinners, some in the way of warning, some in an attractive and even 
entertaining form ; so that scarcely ever was his kindness more apparent than 
when he was surrounded by malignant and insidious enemies. A word to the 
wise. I know that you would wish to be a skilful surgeon, not a butcher." 
Scott's Swiss Reformatim^ p. 186. 



360 CHRISTIAN CHARITY 

character, the sacred, tender character, of a brother s feel- 
ing towards a brothers guilt: no blazoning of faults — no 
exaggeration of delinquency — no exasperating of their feel- 
ings — no triumphing over their mistakes and degradation 
— above all, no hasty shutting of the door of penitence, 
and barring out return — but, even your very protests against 
them made with all the feeling (though also with all the 
faithfulness) of the Apostle ; " I tell you eve^i weeping 
that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ!" Phil, 
iii. 18. 

But once more. Let brotherly love be fostered by cherish- 
ing with our fellow Christians a cordial confidence^ as with par- 
takers of the same Spirit, Take off as large a number as you 
will, whom we must respect mainly for their relation to our 
common Father ; — or bear with chiefly for their relation to our 
common Saviour ; — yet still, how goodly a band remains in 
whom we may recognize the actual indwelling of a common 
Spirit — the Spirit of God — and who therefore, even with all 
the imperfections, in their various degrees, of the old man, 
still defiling them, demand from us a cordial confidence, as tem- 
ples of the Holy Ghost. The very notion of " communion " 
includes in it confidence. The very word " fellow" is made 
up of"fe" which signifies "faith," and "lay," or "low" 
which means "bound;" and hence to be the '^^ fellow" of 
another is to be bound with him in the bonds of a common 
confidence. A " fellowship" or society of men cannot hold 
together without mutual faith and trust. And whom shall 
we trust, if not the man in whom there breathes the 
Spirit of God? From whom shall we expect reciproca- 
tion of a spiritual charity, if not from him who is bound 
with us in the ties of a common spiritual life ? The " com- 
munity" of a village, of old, comprised (as it indicated) all 



A WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 361 

who resorted to the same common fountain. Let the " com- 
munity" of saints comprise all who drink of the same common 
Spirit ! 

And here then lies the secret of a Christian Charity. Let 
each one make it a subject of sedulous culture — an object of 
effort, watchfulness, care. '^^Endeavouring" says St. Paul "to 
keep the unity of the Spirit." Eph. iv. 3. " Follow after 
Charity," he says again. 1 Cor. xiv. 1. " Let us follow after 
the things that make for peace," he exhorts elsewhere ; (Rom. 
xiv. 19 ;) pursue them, (that is,) with untiring diligence — track 
their flying steps with earnest perseverance. Skill, patience, 
management, these are indispensable to Love. You must keep 
it always in view ; — throw forward towards it your best ener- 
gies ; — press close upon it, notwithstanding it so often eludes 
your grasp ; — make prey of the shy and difficult grace. And 
in order to this be much in prayer. For others, as for your- 
self, be much in prayer. Unite your brethren with your own 
mind before the throne of God, and you will find yourself won- 
drously united to them in actual life. Diffuse around each 
thought of them the incense of prayer, and you will find their 
presence softened to you as by an atmosphere of Love. The 
more we pray for others, the more we plead for the develope- 
ment of what is good in them : and the more we thus fix our 
thoughts on what is good in them, the more shall we nourish 
hope concerning them, and exercise care for them : and the 
more we nourish hope concerning any one, and exercise care 
for him, assuredly the more we shall " with a pure heart, fer- 
vently," love him. Nor can we, further, nourish and strengthen 
the Spirit in our own hearts without finding that Spirit breathe 
itself out from us in love. The most affectionately devout 
towards God have ever been the most candid, patient, cor- 
dial, towards their brethren. The stronger the Spirit in 
your soul, the more ready your affinity with the Spirit in 



362 CHRISTIAN CHARITY A WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

your brother's soul. You will find you share with him not 
only " one Lord, one faith, one baptism," but " one God and 
Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in alW 
And thus with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ — and the 
love of God — you will enjoy together " the communion of the 
Holy Ghost r 



363 



CHAPTER VII. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



We have seen in a former chapter that the several Articles 
of the Christian faith, as commemorated in each main division 
of the Apostles' Creed, are not isolated truths ; but bear rela- 
tion to the work of the divine Person, with the confession of 
whom that division begins. In the first division we profess 
our faith in God the Father ; and in the character which he 
sustains, and the works which he accomplishes, as the Maker 
of us and all the world. In the second division we profess to 
believe in God the Son ; and in the series of doings and suffer- 
ings which he went through as the Redeemer of us and of 
all mankind. And, just similarly, in the third division, the 
belief which we avow is not, first and separately, in God the 
Holy Ghost ; and then, as unconnected points of faith, in a 
holy catholic church ; and so on ; but in God the Holy 
Ghost as the Author, within the sphere of that church, of 
those moral dispositions which it is his office to produce 
and sustain as the Sanctifier of us and of all the elect people 
of God. 

Now, these moral dispositions, we have seen, are compre- 
hended under the three cardinal Christian graces of Charity, 
and Faith, and Hope ; and the subjects of belief enumerated 
in this part of our Creed, are so enumerated as forming the 
objects upon which our Charity, and Faith, and Hope, in their 

R 2 



364 CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

specific Christian exercise^ respectively concentrate themselves. 
For it is by the Objects He presents to us, in conjunction with 
the grace that he infuses into us, that the Holy Ghost works 
these moral dispositions. Our duties grow out of our relations ; 
the knowledge of these duties results from the knowledge of 
those relations ; and the power for these duties must be sought 
from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, directing and applying 
our affections towards those relations. The Charity of the 
Christian is that disposition which he is called upon to 
exercise towards his brethren around him, in the " com- 
munion of saints." The Faith of the Christian is that dis- 
position which he is privileged to cherish towards God above 
him, through " the forgiveness of sins." And the Hope of 
the Christian is that disposition with which he may look for- 
ward to the inheritance before him, through the animating 
doctrine of " the resurrection of the body, and the life ever- 
lasting." 

We have arrived now at the second of these Christian dis- 
positions ; and have to consider what is the truth which the 
Holy Ghost presents to the believer, for the nourishment of 
his Faith, in God, abom him. It is " The Forgiveness of 
Sins." 

Now it is to be noted that the connexion of this article of 
the Creed, with the work of the Holy Ghost as carried on in 
the holy catholic church, is not left to be inferred merely, 
from the juxtaposition of the clauses ; but is, in some of the 
ancient creeds, expressly affirmed, by the phraseology em- 
ployed. Cyprian, for example, (in the third century after 
Christ,) referring to the baptismal interrogatory used in his 
time, speaks of it as being in substance this : — " Dost thou 
believe in God the Father, in Christ the Son, in the Holy 
Ghost, and in the forgiveness of sins, and everlasting life, 



CHRISTIAN FAITH, 365 

through the holy church^ * And in the Nicene Creed, you will 
remember, (it is the same in the Ethiopian and several others,) 
w^ recite the Article before us in a similar connexion with 
the initiatory sacrament of the church, " I believe in one bap- 
tism for the remission of sins" It is, you see, only as being 
one of Christ's people, that the Christian is assured of the 
forgiveness of sins. It is only as a member of Christ, that he 
may look upon himself as a child of God, and an inheritor of 
the kingdom of heaven. The one blessed truth which this 
article proposes to his faith is that he stands before God 
relieved from condemnation. But this relation to the Father 
he owes entirely to that purification by the Son, of which his 
baptism is the symbol and memorial. And his practical sense 
of this relation is a work of the Holy Ghost. 

Observe, first, that the Christian stands before God as re- 
lieved from condemnation. 

For this is the essence of the doctrine of ** the forgiveness 
of sins." The relation to God, in which we stand by nature, 
is one of sinfulness — of guilt — of condemnation. The rela- 
tion which is proposed to our faith is just the reverse of this 
— a relation of pardon, acceptance, approbation. But it is 
only as we become sensible of — yea painfully and remorsefully 
feel — that relation of nature ; that we can pass into, or even 
understand, this relation of grace. All reconciliation to God 
must take place on condition of renunciation of sin. All 
acceptance to his favour, under pledge of opposition to his 
enemies. And all personal sense of such reconciliation and 
acceptance — i. e. all living faith, must be preceded by personal 
exercise of such renunciation and opposition — i. e. by hearty 

. * " Credis in Deum Patrem, Filium Christum, Spiritum Sanctum, remis- 
sionem peccatorum et vitara aetemam per sanctam ecclesiamV — Cyprian, 
Ep. 76. 6. 



366 CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

Repentance, A great deal, it is true, is said in Scripture, 
about God's mercy and compassion. Yet just as much is said in 
Scripture about man's obligation to repent in order to receive 
that mercy, and benefit by that compassion. It is not mercy 
absolutely/, which is proclaimed. But mercy to the penitent. It 
is not pardon arbitrarily. But pardon to those who renounce 
their sins. The fullest promises of the one are always limited, 
by the clearest demands for the other. 

When, for example, God proclaimed himself to Moses, as 
" the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffer- 
ing, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thou- 
sands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin ;" he 
expressly added, " but by no means clearing the guilty." * 
Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. When he said so condescendingly, by 
Isaiah, to the Israelites, " Come now, and let us reason toge- 
ther, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, 
they shall be as wool," (Isa.i. 18,) what is the context in which 
that promise is, as it were, imbedded ? What is demanded as 
the proper state of mind for its reception and enjoyment ? 
" Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings 
from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well ; — 
if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land." 
Isa. i. 16, 17, 19. So, when the Baptist came to point to the 
Lamb of God as taking away the sin of the world, what was 
his opening proclamation ? " Repent ye, and be baptized, for 
the remission of sins." And when Jesus followed him, preach- 
ing the glad tidings of the kingdom, what still was his prelimi- 
nary demand from all who would rejoice in those tidings ? 
" Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ! " He 

* i. e. Who will not go on for ever sparing those who continue obstinate. 
Gesenius. So also Rosenmuller. " Qui quamvis clemens sit, et peccato- 
rum poenas remittat, tamen non semper peccatorem impunitum dimittet." 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 367 

came, it is true, " not to call the righteous, but sinners ;" 
— but then it was to call these sinners " to repentance'' 
He commissioned his Apostles to go into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature ; — but then this gospel was, 
" that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in 
his name among all nations." Luke xxiv. 47. And when 
Peter, with the rest of the Apostles, stood up on the day of 
Pentecost, in fulfilment of this mission, to whom did he address 
himself? To those who " were pricked in their heart, and 
cried out. Men and brethren, w^hat shall we do? " And what 
did he enjoin upon them? ^^ Repent and be baptized every 
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
sins." Actsii. 37, 38. God's mercy comes ioxth. freely, of his 
own spontaneous will ; but that mercy falls not indiscrimi- 
nately/. The rays of his compassion stream throughout the 
heavens ; but there must be a certain state of atmosphere on 
which alone they paint the bow of hope. God's bow is set in 
the cloud. God's mercy is directed towards the weeping peni- 
tent. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. And 
it is only as we have been exercised in the lessons, and have 
quailed before the discipline, yea, and have accepted the just 
sentence, of that law, that we can welcome the good news of 
grace and truth. Moses must precede Jesus. The sense of 
guilt, the hope of pardon. The spirit of heaviness, the gar- 
ment of praise. The renunciation of Satan, acceptance with 
God. " Let the wicked forsake his way^ and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and he 
will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abun- 
dantly pardon ! " Isa. Iv. 7. 

But you will say, that just this repentance, of which we 
speak, brings with it necessarily all that crouching down in 
deep humiliation ; that shuddering shame when we compare 
ourselves with God's purity ; that foreboding dread when we 



368 CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

think of his justice ; that very sense of condemnation in all its 
present wretchedness and anticipated misery; which is just 
the opposite of faith in " the forgiveness of sins." " The 
more" (will the thorough penitent complain) — " the more I 
know myself ; and know the law of God ; and know my respon- 
sibilities under that awful law ; and know my manifold delin- 
quencies, yea my radical corruption and unworthiness ; that is, 
the more I grow in this repentance which, you say, must be 
introductory to faith; the more unable am I to believe— the 
more impossible it is for me to think — that while I stand before 
myself condemned I can stand before God relieved from con- 
demnation. I feel that I am guilty — how can I escape the 
dread of punishment for such guilt? Compunction deepens 
in me daily — how can the sense of condemnation^ which with 
that compunction comes upon me, not be deepened too ? " 

I answer, by most carefully keeping separate those two 
emotions that you speak o^— compunction, and the sense of 
condemnation. I know indeed that they are often confounded. 
I know that from their intimate connexion they are very apt 
to run into each other. But I assert that it is the Christian's 
duty — the Christian penitent's duty — as it is his privilege, to 
dissolve the union ; and, while he cherishes his compunction, 
to challenge his sense of condemnation ; and, in the light of 
the relation in which he stands to God in Christ, to exorcise 
the foul fiend, till it shrink away, like imps of darkness from 
the morning dawn. 

For consider ; how separable these two emotions are, in their 
definition. By compunction, I mean that deep sense of un- 
worthiness, that self-disapprobation, humiliation, contrition, 
which are awakened by the perception of self-contradiction ; 
by comparing what we are with what we ought to be. And 
by a sense of condemnation I mean that alarm and dread 
which are awakened by the perception of our having, by this 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 369 

self-contradiction, broken the laws, and brought ourselves 
under the awful curse, of the Almighty Governor and Judge. 
The one results from self-comparison with an Idea which has 
dawned within us — the other, with a Law which frowns with- 
out us. The one from consideration of our character, as a 
whole, falling short of that Idea — the other, of some particu- 
lars of our conduct which have violated that Law. The one is 
pained at what we are — the other terror-struck at what we 
have done. The one loathes sin — the other dreads the conse- 
quences of sin. 

And consider, moreover, how separable these two emotions 
are in fact. You have only to recur to some Scripture in- 
stances to see how a sense of condemnation may exist without 
compunction ; and how, on the other hand, a deep sense of un- 
worthiness may pervade the soul without any of the terrors of 
a sense of condemnation. 

See, first, how there may be a sense of condemnation with- 
out compunction ; — terror without humiliation ; — dread without 
contrition. Look at the first guilty pair. They had set be- 
fore them a positive Law ; " Of the tree of the knowledge 
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that 
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die ; " and immediately 
on the act of transgression of that law there came upon them 
dread of Him who had given it to them. " They hid them- 
selves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the 
garden." There you behold that sense of condemnation which 
results from perceived transgression of positive law. But 
where was their compunction ? their humiliation ? their self- 
disapprobation ? They attempt to excuse, if not to justify, 
themselves. They plead, " The woman whom thou gavest to 
be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat " — " the 
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." So true is it that fear 
will not produce compunction but only self-justification ; that 

R 5 



370 CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

while we dread the consequences of sin we shall do all we can 
to keep down the acknowledgment of sin.* The sense of con- 
demnation makes men afraid of God, but not humbled before 
God. It makes them hate their Judge — but not themselves. 
It is the feeling of Ahab, " Hast thou found me, O mine 
enemy ?" and not that of Job, " I abhor myself and repent in 
dust and ashes I " 

But look now on the other side ; and take some instances of 
the deepest sense of unworthiness, and compunction, un em- 
bittered by a sense of condemnation ; — of humiliation without 
terror ; — of contrition without dread. Thank God ! these in- 
stances are numerous I They are found in the Old Testa- 
ment as well as the New ; though they show themselves most 
clearly under the Gospel of Christ, the good news of " for- 
giveness of sins." How deep, for example, the humiliation of 
Abraham ; " Behold I am but dust and ashes I " And yet 
this same Abraham communes and pleads with God, as with 
his friend ! " Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak 
unto the Lord I " Gen. xviii. 27. How intense, again, the 
compunction of the Psalmist ; " I acknowledge my sin unto 
thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid." And yet, how com- 
plete his confidence in the forgiveness accorded to him ; 
" Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is 
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not 
iniquity ! " Ps. xxxii. 5, 1. How profound, again, the sense 
of unworthiness of the prophet ; " Woe is me ! for I am un- 
done ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the 



* Nor do I doubt that the speculations about human accountableness, and 
the readiness to listen to those who would persuade us we are only things^ not 
persons ; acting from necessity, and possessing no responsible free agency, 
spring from this same source. The sense of guilt must be got rid of. What a 
man feels to be a heavy burden, in fact ; he seeks to lighten, or if possible ' 
cast off entirely, by theory. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



371 



midst of a people of unclean lips." And yet how effectual 
was the " live coal from the altar " to " take away his iniquity, 
and purge his sin " — to free him from all dread of that august 
presence in which he stood I " Then said I, here am I ; send 
me I " Isa. vi. 5. 8. And where will you find a sense of un- 
worthiness like that of Paul ? so deep, so permanent, so ting- 
ing aU his views both of himself and of his work. " I am not 
meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the church 
of God I " "I am less than the least of all saints I " "I am 
the chief of sinners ! " And yet, at the same time what trace 
will you find in him^ after his conversion, of a sense of con- 
demnation ? Where does there escape a single sentiment 
which indicates bondage, dread, apprehension? Where, on 
the contrary, is there not the quiet, happy, breathing of a heart 
reposing unreservedly on God's compassion; — delighting in 
his favour ; — animated with the blessed consciousness of his 
presence ? " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all ac- 
ceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
ners I" "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded 
that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him 
against that day." You see the man plainly, throughout all 
his vicissitudes, as one who had thoroughly " washed away his 
sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Acts xxii. 16. 

And is not then a genuine compunction a very different 
thing from sense of condemnation ? Must not the first be- 
come deepened in us the more we know of ourselves ? Ought 
not the second to be lessened in us the more we know of the 
grace of God? May not the first exist in all its fulness, 
when the second is entirely removed? Yea will there not 
be just so much the more scope for the free expansion of the 
salutary feelings of the first, in proportion as we are delivered 
from the deadly workings of the second ? For, when will the 
penitent most feel his unworthiness ; but when he considers 



372 CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

the pardoning love of God ? How shall we be truly afflicted 
and mourn, but by looking on Him whom we have pierced ? 
There is no complete repentance without faith ; because only 
faith can enable us to endure that thorough investigation into 
our depravity which works an entire renunciation of it in all 
its parts. Remorse there may be : for remorse is the implicit 
creed of the guilty. But repentance there will not be ; for re- 
pentance is the self- surrender of the broken heart into the 
arms of its compassionate God. Like Adam we shall cover 
our transgressions, by hiding them in our bosom ; unless we 
are encouraged to bring them forth to light — that they may 
he blotted out. Unless there be something which, in the 
midst of our shivering wretchedness, brings, as it were, long- 
buried recollections to our mind, and whispers to us, " I have 
still a Father ! " we shall not have the heart — the will — to 
purpose, as the penitent prodigal resolved, " I will arise, and 
go to my Father, and will say unto him, Father I have sinned 
against heaven and before thee ; and am no more worthy to be 
called thy son ! " 

And it is then to give the penitent, heart — yea will — to 
purpose thus — "I will arise and go unto my Father,'' that 
there is enshrined in our Creed the blessed truth of " the for- 
giveness of sins." " There is forgiveness with Thee/' says 
the Psalmist " that thou mayest be feared ;" i.e. be worshipped ; 
served ; approached with offerings of homage and obedience. 
" There is forgiveness with Him," re-echoes our Creed, that 
we may yield to him the homage of omx filial service, and with 
all our feelings of un worthiness, be yet relieved from a sense 
of condemnation. " I have sinned against the Lord " said the 
humbled David. " The Lord hath put away thy sin," imme- 
diately responded the inspired prophet. And faith in God is 
just that act whereby, when deeply conscious of our thorough 
integrity, we can bring those two facts into juxtaposition, and 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 373 

though debtors before our Creditor — though criminals before 
our Judge — though sinners before the Holy One — yet, be at 
peace ! 

But, such a relation to the Father we owe entirely to that puri- 
fication hy the Son, of which our baptism is the symbol and 
memorial : this is the second step in our present subject. 

This purification was accomplished for us on the cross. 
What the Jewish sacrifices were to the individual penitent — 
or, on the day of Expiation, to the self-condemned and mourn- 
ing nation — that is the sacrifice of Christ to every penitent 
through every age. He is " the lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world" John i. 29. Him, God sent into the 
world, " not to condemn the world, but that the world through 
him might be saved." John iii. 17. '' He was made sin for 
us," (treated as guilty in our stead,) " though he knew no 
sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of God " 
(treated as not guilty) " in him." 2 Cor. v. 21. " For, him 
hath God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his 
blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins 
that are past'' Rom. iii. 25. And " in him we have re- 
demption, through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, 
according to the riches of his grace." Eph. i. 7. 

And O what an object is here placed before the faith of the 
trembling penitent, to assure him that there is " no condemna- 
tion to them which are in Christ Jesus ! " Rom. viii. 1 . How 
exactly suited to his case ! How condescendingly adapted to 
his anxious state of mind I It is easy for the careless world- 
ling to talk of " the mercy of God." It is easy for the self- 
sufficient religionist to flatter himself that he is meriting God's 
approbation — or, at least, forbearance. But for the man who 
knows himself — his sinfulness, his guilt, and his desert of 
condemnation, — where shall be found a warrant for his peace, 



374 CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

whence shall he gain the slightest hope of a " forgiveness of 
his sins," but in the cross of Christ ? * The cross of Christ 
is the symbol of salvation for every one who looks thereto 
in penitence and faith. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in 
the wilderness even so was the Son of man lifted up, that -whoso- 
ever believeth in him may not perish but have everlasting life." 
And then, for the memorial of this fact, and of its atoning, 
expiating, purifying power — the Lord himself ordained that 
rite of Baptism, which (like the other sacrament, of His 
Supper) is, as our 25th Article declares, " not merely a badge 
or token of Christian men's profession, but a certain sure 
witness and effectual sign of grace and God's good will to us, 
by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not only 
quicken but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him'' 
It is as thus a sign of the purification wrought out by the 
washing of Christ's blood, and the change thereby of the pe- 
nitent's relation to the Father, that the Apostle Peter enjoins 
it on the awakened sinners on the day of Pentecost — " Re- 
pent ye, and he baptized every one of you, in the name of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins." Acts ii. 38, 

* " Quomodo igitur sciunt, utrum de congruo an de condigno mereantur ? 
Sed tota haec res conficta est ah otiosis hominibm, qui non nonmt, quomodo 
contingat remissio peccatorum, et quomodo in judicio Dei, et terroiibus con- 
sdentice, fiducia operum nobis excutiatur. Securi hypocritae semper judicant, 
se de condigno mereri,. . sed consdentice perterrefactcB ambigunt et dubitant, et 
subinde alia opera quserunt et cumulant ut acquiescant. Hae nimquam sen- 
tiunt se de condigno mereri, et ruunt in desperationem, nisi audiant prseter 
doctrinam legis, Evangelium de gratuita remissioiie peccatorum, et justitia 
fidei." — Melancthon. Apol. Conf. 63. 

" Non enim potest cor, vere sentiens Deum irasci, diligere Deimi, nisi osten- 
datur placatus ; donee terret et videtur nos abjicere in aetemam mortem, non 
potest se erigere natura bumana, ut diligat iratum, judicantem, et punientem. 
FacUe est otiosis fingere ista somnia de dilectione, quia non sentiunt quid sit 
ira, aut judicium Dei. At in agone co7iscienii(£, et in acie experitur conscientia 
vanitatem illarum speculationum pbilosophicarum.'' — Id. lb. 66. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 375 

And it is thus as a sign of this purification, or washing out of 
guilt in the sight of God, that Ananias, similarly, says to 
Saul, " And now, why tarriest thou ?" lingering in the dark- 
ness, and the agony of your terror-struck conscience,* — 
" Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on 
the name of the Lord." Acts xxii. 16. Where observe, that 
the declaration of that pardon and acceptance of which the 
washing with water was to be the symbol, and thus should 
more eflfectually commend the blessed truth to the faith of 
Saul, — this had been already made by Ananias, (and that too, 
with another significant act) on his first accosting the amazed 
and anxious convert : for Ananias " when he had entered into 
the house, putting his hands on him " (in sign of peace and 
benediction) " said. Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that 
appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, 
that thou mightest receive thy sight, and befitted with the Holy 
Ghost," While in both these instances, it is " the Lord,'' and 
" the name of the Lord " which are set forth as the efficient 
cause of the propitiation and the grace proclaimed ; the sym- 
bolical act being only the instrument through which the mind 
of the penitent is brought into contact with that cause — the 
link by which the animating truth of God's forgiveness 
through the blood of Christ, is more efi'ectually conveyed into 
the soul. And hence it is that the symbolical act of baptism 
is, in the Nicene Creed, commemorated in such close con- 
nexion with that truth : " I believe in one baptism for the 
remission of sins." f 

* For " lie was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink." — 
Acts ix. 9. 

t For the same reason — as being so effectual a sign of God's grace and good- 
will to us, — does Luther press so strongly on the Christian the habitual recol- 
lection of his baptismal standing, in Christ Jesus ; that so the reconciliation 
symbolized to us, and the promises assured to us, by that significant rite, may 
be retained the more steadily in the grasp of faith. " Quapropter quivis 



376 CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

But we have now to show, in the third place, that a praC' 
tical sense of this new relation into which the penitent is admitted 
through the sacrifice of Christ, is the work of the Holy Ghost, 

For first, it is the Holy Ghost who produces that illumi- 
nation of the mind which perceives the glory of Christ. 
Christian faith has relation to the Christian truth of the for- 
giveness of sins. But this forgiveness of sins is proposed to us 
only through the purification wrought for us by Christ. And 
therefore it is only as the glory of this great Mediator,^ — the 
dignity of his person, — the sufficiency of his merits, — the effi- 
cacy of his work, — the ever-living force of his intercession, — 
become perceived by us, that we can exercise this faith. 
Faith is not an impression ; — a feeling, we know not what, 
which we think we ought to find — or create — within ourselves, 
we know not how. But faith has relation to an object with- 
out us. It is, in fact, the response of the heart towards such 
an object represented to the mind. And even as confidence 
in a parent must spring from our knowledge of that parent ; 
and trust in a friend, from our appreciation of that friend ; so 
faith, which is confidence, trust, in the Unseen, must have 
for its correlative, not only the knowledge of God as exist- 

Christianus per omnem vitam suam abunde satis habet, ut Baptismum rede 
perdiscat, atque exerceat. Sat enim habet negotii, ut credat firmiter, quae- 
cunque Baptismo promittuntur, et offeruntur ; victoriam nempe mortis ac 
Diaboli, remissionem peccatorum, gratiam Dei, Christum cum omnibus suis 
operibus, et Spiritum Sanctum cum omnibus suis dotibus. . .Ita Baptismus 
intuendus est, et nobis fructuosus faciendus, ut hoc freti corroboremur et con- 
firmemur, quoties peccatis aut conscientia gravamur, ut dicamus ; Ego tamen 
baptizatus sum ; quod si baptizatus, certum est, ea promissa mihi data esse, 
me beatum fore, ac vitam immortalem et anima et corpore possessurum." — 
Cat. maj. 543. 

So also Wycliff reminds us that " Baptizing is a token of the -washing of the 
soul from sin, both original and actual, by virtue taken of Chrisfs death.'''' And 
Mr. Wilberforce says, (in Christ. Obs. Sep. 1839,) " The Sacrament of Bap- 
tism shadoics out our souls being washed and purified by the blood of Christ.^'' 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 377 

ing", but the knowledge of Him in those specific aspects of a 
Father and a friend to us. It is the manifestation of character 
which wakes up in us personal emotions corresponding to 
that character. And only in proportion as the character of 
God becomes unveiled to us in its Christian aspect can we 
exercise towards God a Christian faith. Whence Jesus so em- 
phatically says, " This is life eternal, to know thee the only 
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 

But the character of God in this its Christian aspect is made 
known to us only in the person, the work, the words, of Christ. 
It is God in Christ which is the proper object of Christian 
faith. It is Christ as the expression of the pardoning love of 
God. And yet, do all to whom such a theme has been pro- 
claimed enter into it ? Is the sublime Idea appreciated ? Is 
it welcomed? Is it grasped and taken home to the heart? 
Is it not true in every age, as it was in the time of Paul, that 
the preaching of the Cross is to some foolishness, though to 
others it is the power of God ? Whence then the very dif 
ferent light in which the same object is perceived by different 
minds ? What makes it to some the savour of life, unto life, 
because they welcome it ; to others the savour of death, unto 
death, because they neglect it ? The word of God gives the 
answer. " We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which 
none of the princes of this world knew ; — as it is written, Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them 
that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his 
Spirit. — For the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can 
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned ; but he 
that is spiritual judgeth all things," 1 Cor. ii. 7 — 15. 

And may there then peradventure be a reader of this book 
who has not yet entered into the experience of the very truth 



378 CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

which you confess so repeatedly in your Creed, — " the for- 
giveness of sins ?" Let me ask you, Whence comes this in- 
difference ? Why, having eyes see you not, and having ears 
hear you not; unless that you have failed to seek for the 
illuminating influences of the Spirit of God? We need 
the Holy Ghost, to work as much upon our mind, as on our 
heart : to give light, as well as life : yea to give light as the 
only means through which he may convey to us life ! Do you 
bewail your timorousness of conscience; — your uneasiness of 
mind ; — your inability to believe ; — the impossibility that you 
should take so bold a step as to assure yourself that your sins 
are forgiven you ? See if what you need be not the clear per- 
ception of the Object towards which such a faith must have 
relation j by gazing upon which it must be quickened, nou- 
rished, strengthened. And be assured that this Object will 
never shine forth to you in all his glory till the film of spiri- 
tual blindness have been purged away from your mind by the 
Holy Ghost. Pray then for his illumination. Beseech " the 
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, to give to 
you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of 
Christ." (Eph. i. 17.) And then shall you experience that 
change of mind which to the trembling Saul was imaged 
out by bodily change ;— There shall " fall from your eyes as 
it were scales; and you shall receive your sight, and be 
filled with the Holy Ghost:' Act ix. 17, 18. 

But next ; this same Spirit works that reconciliation of the 
heart, which appropriates the work of Christ. This is as need- 
ful as illumination to the mind. For " with the heart man 
believeth unto righteousness." Rom. x. 10. The object before 
us must be embraced by the affections within us. And here 
is the point of distinction between an historical belief, and a 
spiritual faith. Herein lies the assimilating power which 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 379 

makes a general proposition in God's word, the bread of life 
to my individual soul. There must be a re- action of heart 
towards God to appropriate the mercies of God. The voice 
that proclaimed " I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy 
transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins," said also " Return 
unto me, for I have redeemed thee I" Isa. xliv. %2, The 
Apostle who declares, " God was in Christ, reconciling the 
world unto hiniself, not imputing their trespasses unto them," 
adds immediately " Therefore, we pray you, in Christ's stead, 
Be ye reconciled to God:'' — yea further, " We beseech you 
that ye receive not that grace of God in vain /" 2 Cor. v. 19. 
vi. 1. And this reconciliation of the heart to God; this 
bringing it back to him to lay hold of the mercy set before it 
this closing with his offers ; and embracing his grace ; is a 
work of the Holy Ghost. " The Lord opened the heart of 
Lydia, that she attended to the things which were spoken by 
Paul." Acts xvi. 14. "Ye have purified your souls," says 
Peter, " in obeying the truth through the Spirit." 1 Peter i, 
22. "We having" says St. Paul, "the same spirit of faith, 
according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I 
spoken ; we also believe and therefore speak." 2 Cor. iv. 1 3. 

But once more. It is the work of the Spirit, again, to pro- 
duce in us a practical sense of relief from condemnation, be- 
cause He effects that surrender of the will which realizes our 
union with Christ. The standing complete before God is the 
standing in Christ, as dwelling in him and he in us ; as one 
with him and he with us. And hence the very title of a 
Christian is One who is " in Christ Jesus ;" Rom. viii. 1, and 
one " in whom Christ is." 2 Cor. xii. 5. But, to be " in 
Christ" and " Christ in us" is to have surrendered up our own 
will, and taken into us his will. It is to have put away our 
earthly personality, — that of the old man, which is corrupt 



380 CHBISTIAN FAITH. 

according to the deceitful lusts ; and to have received a 
heavenly personality^ — that of the new man, which is created 
anew in Christ Jesus unto good works. Whence the Apostle 
says, " I am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless I live ; yet 
not I ; but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now 
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who 
loved me and gave himself for me." Gal, ii. 20. Where 
mark, that " to live by faith" is to have " Christ living in us ;" 
and to have " Christ living in us " is to have been " crucified 
with Christ" from our own will and personality, and to have 
risen again, endued, as it were, with His will and personality. 
But thus to have " Christ in us" is the work of the Spirit of 
Christ. It is by that Spirit that this union is first effected, 
and continually kept up. " If any man have not the Spirit of 
Christ," says Paul, "he is none of his : but if Christ be in 
you" (mark the equivalency of the phrases) " then the body is 
dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteous- 
ness." Rom, viii. 9, 10. "I will pray the Father," said our 
blessed Lord, " and he shall give you another Comforter, that 
he may abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit of truth ; — 
I will not leave you comfortless, / will come unto you." John 
xiv. 16 — 18. O for the full indwelling of this Spirit of God, 
that we may thereby realize a vital union with the Son of God, 
and find him witnessing with our spirit that we are the children 
of God ! 



381 



CHAPTER VIII. 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



There must be something very different in Christian Hope, 
from that which usually bears the name. Nothing so common 
and so easy as Hope. You hear persons professing it as a 
matter of course, both as regards themselves and their fellow- 
men. And yet, at the same time, this Hope is as lifeless as 
it is common. There is little — there is often nothing — 
positive in it. It is but the negation of fear. 

But how different the character of Christian hope I You 
cannot look into the Bible without remarking, first, how 
difficult a disposition it seems to be considered. Even where 
the other Christian graces are in vigour, this is often wanting. 
Even when the Apostle rejoices in the Love, and the Faith, 
of his converts, he is obliged to use exhortation and prayer, 
as regards their hope. " I also " he writes to the Ephesians, 
" after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
love to all the saints, make mention of you in my prayers that 
.. . .ye may know what is the hope of his calling." Eph. i. 
15 — 18. And though, to the Romans, he avows, with perfect 
satisfaction, that he is persuaded they are full of goodness, 
and " filled with all knowledge ;'' yet he makes it a subject of 
earnest supplication for them " that the God of Hope may fill 
you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound 
in Hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." Rom. xv. 
14, 13. In which passage, moreover, you must be struck 



382 CHRISTIAN HOPE. 

with a second characteristic of this grace, — how livelT/ it is ; 
how productive of joy and peace; how essentially different 
from that dull immunity from fear, which is to the sparkling 
spirit of the Gospel as the stagnant pool to the ebullient 
spring. " Whosoever drinketh of this water " said Jesus to 
the woman of Samaria, " shall thirst again ; but whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never 
thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him 
a well of water springing up to everlasting life ! " John iv. 
13,14. 

And of this everlasting life, we are now to speak. Our 
meditations on the Creed have brought us up to that last point ; 
— that consummation of all human interests, physical, moral, 
spiritual ; — that end for which as creatures we were made ; — 
that prize for which as Christians we run ; — " the resurrection 
OF the body and the life everlasting." O for God's grace 
to treat this subject aright ! O for his Spirit to beget us 
thereby to " a lively Hope ! " 

For, in treating these final clauses of our Creed we must 
remember that they set before us those objects by which the 
Holy Ghost quickens and sustains the Hope of the Christian 
as regards the world before him. And this world before us may 
be looked upon — must be so — in three aspects. First, as we 
are interested in it for ourselves, as individual members of 
Christ. Secondly, as we are interested in it for ourselves, as 
parts of a general system of things. And thirdly, as we are 
interested in it for that general system itself of which we are 
parts. The Christian is united to his Lord ; — it is essential 
to his hope that he be assured this union shall continue on- 
ward, after death. He is united to the world around him 
which that Lord came to redeem ; — it is essential to his hope 
that he be assured this union shall be restored after the separa- 
tion caused by death. He is united to the interests of that 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 383 

worlds its history and future fate, upon that Lord's return ; — 
it is essential to his hope that he be assured of his participa" 
tion in the final triumph of that world redeemed, through all 
the new relations of the everlasting age. 

Here then we have opened to us three of the most im- 
portant topics which relate to the world before us ; — the per- 
manency of our being ; — the restoration of our body; — and our 
participation in the final triumph of all creation in the ever- 
lasting age. 

The topic of this chapter is the permanency of our being. 
And my endeavour will be to show you how probable the 
Hope of this is made, by Reason — how certain, by the word 
of God. 



SECTION I. 

the permanency of the soul probable. 

I DO not purpose to enter here into all the manifold con- 
siderations which show that the Hope of our continued being 
after death is rendered probable by Reason. And yet I 
would not altogether pass them by, as utterly unworthy of the 
Christian's attention. For we gain a great deal, upon sub- 
jects like the present, if we can show that the conjectures of 
Reason, however far they may fall short of proof, are yet in 
the direction of the disclosures of Revelation ; — that the full- 
foi-med truth of Scripture has been prefigured by the im- 
perfect shapings of the human mind ; — that the infant utter- 
ance of untutored nature has lisped forth some few syllables of 
the clear and full enunciation of the voice of God. 

For, if you consult the anticipations of our human 
instinct, you will see that a permanency of being is con- 



384 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL PROBABLE. 

tinually assumed^ in all its forms of utterance. Men cannot 
conceive the contrary. To think and talk of ourselves, or of 
others, as in some way, and in some sense, enduring ; is easy, 
natural, universal. Whereas to assert the contrary requires 
effort j seems to be doing violence to our most inborn feelings. 
The idea of life is so familiar to us, so twisted in with all our 
most closely woven associations, that we cannot, without the 
greatest labour, separate it off from them. Death never seems 
to us destruction. A something, be it light as air and dim as 
the images of dreams, — still a something, the very lowest 
grade of men (such as the aborigines of New Holland) 
assume to be remaining (and remaining alive) of him who has 
once breathed and moved before their eyes. All peoples, I 
say, in all stages of developement, have believed this. And it 
is the dictum of one of the wisest of uninspired thinkers, that 
what all men, in all ages, have believed ; — that the consent of 
nations — of universal humanity ; — must be considered as a 
law of nature.* Nor is it here to be objected that such ex- 
pectation, like many fancies of a popular belief, may possibly 
deceive us ; for the answer is, that whatever errors in matters 
of scientific knowledge, or of the sensuous imagination, may 
have met with universal, or almost universal, credence ; 
because the sole materials on which the understanding and 
the fancy work are the deceptive notices of sense ; this cannot 
invalidate the moral convictions of the practical reason of man- 
kind, which are the offspring of the generic Ideas of the 
human soul.f Our belief in the permanency of our being is, 

* Omni in re consensio omnium gentium lex naturae putanda est. Cicero ; 
Qusest, Tuscul. i. 13. So also Seneca, Ep. 117. Cum de animarum aetemi- 
tate disserimus, non leve momentum apud nos habet consensus Jiominmn, aut 
timentium inferos, aut colentium. 

f Atque hoc ita sentimus natura duce^ nulla ratione nuUaque doctrina. 
Maximum vero argumentum est naturam ipsam de immortalitate animorum 
tacitam judicare, quod omnibus curse sunt, et maximae quidem, quae post mor- 
tem futura sint. — Cicero. Ibid. 14. 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 385 

in this respect, akin to our belief in spirit — our belief in 
virtue— our belief in God ! 

But go on, next, to the conclusions of the intellect on 
this matter. For these have not been wanting ; in various 
ways. Men soon began to speculate on a subject which so 
much concerned them. The yearnings of human instinct de- 
manded and received the investigations of human intellect. 
And when men looked into their nature, and examined that 
within them which is the seat of thought and feeling and will 
— which manifestly constitutes their essential and peculiar 
being — they seemed to find weighty reasons for the assent of 
\heiY judgment to the intimations of their nature. 

For, when you look to the unity of your inward being ; how, 
with members of the body manifold, and exercises of the mind 
innumerable, and alterations of the one and of the other con- 
tinually going on ; you still are conscious amidst all this un- 
ceasing change, of something stable ; — this endless variety, of 
something always the same; — this multiplicity of parts and 
thoughts and feelings and volitions, of something single^ as 
the one sole cause of all ; there comes with this the strong 
conviction that what is not compounded cannot be dissolved ; 
— that what remains the same amidst the fluctuations of 
seventy and eighty years must surely continue to remain 
the same through longer tracts of time ; — that what has 
suffered the subtraction of every particle of the body in which 
it dwells, at least ten different times within a life of seventy 
years, and yet survives that loss uninjured, may just as 
well survive the last removal of that body in a mass, and 
keep on whole and vigorous still. You know that even 
in matter, amidst the infinite changes of its forms, from 
the beginning of the world, not one substantial particle ever 



386 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 

perishes ; * and you find it, therefore, impossible to imagine, 
against all analogy, that it is otherwise with mind.f 

And when, moreover, you consider, next, the potentiality of 
your inward being ; — its progressive tendency ; — its being 
formed for attainments which in this life never are realized ; 
— its capacity for an expansion, which in these few years of 
being never takes place ; — when you consider that, as the 
youngest infant to the full-grown man, so is the actual stature 
which we attain to in this world to the standard height of soul 
for which we seem to have been formed; — can you for a 
moment believe that He who formed you after such a 
standard, and implanted the idea of such a standard in your 
mind, and thus has led you to look forward to your ultimate 
attainment of it, — that He, the wise and good, will cut down, 
in the very first stage of its growth, his own fair plant? 
That is a touching emblem of mortality which the ancients 
were fond of, — a truncated column — a pillar broken off near its 
base. But yet that very emblem carries in itself an argument 
for immortality. For if that column have been the work of an 
intelligent architect, it must have been begun according to a 
finished design ; which finished design, if but that architect be 

* Renimque novatrix 

Ex aliis alias reparat Natura figuras. 
Nee perit in toto quidquam, mihi credite, mundo ; 
Sed variat, faciemque novat ; nascique vocatur 
Incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante ; morique 
Desinere illud idem. Cum sint hue forsitan ilia, 
Haec translata illuc ; summa tamen omnia constant. 

Ovid. Met. xv. 252— 258. 

"Y Regit idem spiritus artus 

Orbe alio ; longae, canitis si cognita, vitcB 
Mors media est. 

LucAN, i. 456. 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 387 

powerful as he is wise, who can believe shall be cut short and 
frustrated in execution ? He who laid down its base, shall he 
not rear it even to the splendid capital ? The interruption of 
the work which appears to us, can it be more than mei-e ap- 
pearance f What has begun to rise above the low mean level 
of our imperfect vision, shall we, because we cannot follow it 
in its upward growth, deny that it continues to rise ? — And 
yet indeed what is man but a truncated column, — the shame 
of his Designer, — the reproach of the Architect who has 
begun to build and cannot finish — if there be not another 
state, in which he shall be reared up to his god-like height ? 

But, does God in anything else, sketch out a noble design, 
and then come short of its execution ? Does he bring toge- 
ther vast materials, and leave them only an unfinished mass ? 
Does he wrap up the rudiments of the oak in the acorn, and 
- yet never suffer that acorn to unfold itself into a tree ? Does 
he make room, in the very form of the chrysalis, for the ulti- 
mate protrusion of the future insect, and yet forbid that insect 
to protrude ? Does he give, throughout all nature, in each of 
her stages, anticipations, yea and prophecies, of the higher 
stage yet to be developed ; and yet does he suffer those antici- 
pations, those mute prophecies, to fail ? And what then, if he 
has wrapped up in man the rudiments of a something, which 
never in this life has gained room to expand itself ? What, 
if he has filled the soul of man, in its very constitution and 
capacities, with prophecies irrepressible of a stage not yet 
developed ; a life not yet reached ; to which this present stage 
is no more than the rudimental indistinctness of the unborn 
infant in its embryo existence ? Is not all this ground for 
solid argument? Does it not amount to moral proof that 
our present condition is but the bud of our being? The 
infancy of our nature ? The faint commencement of a life 
which, according to its manifest rudiments, must grow up and 

s2 



388 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 

strengthen and complete itself througli ages yet to come? 
How clearly this conviction was spoken out, how beautifully 
symbolized, by that other ancient emblem, so common upon 
tombs, the figure of a butterfly. In that one little image 
there was comprehended all the vast argument drawn from the 
analogy of nature round us — from the undeveloped character 
of our present being — from the potentiality of life in all its 
forms. Men told themselves, the soul too had a transmigra- 
tion to undergo! — the soul too would put forth her wings; 
and soar into the expanse of a purer sky ; and drink in the 
breath of heaven ; and glitter in the sunlight of a brighter 
world ! 

And this the judgment seems yet more convinced of when 
it looks, further, at the contradictions of our inward being in 
its present state. There is a unitt/ in it, distinct from that of 
the body; — there is 2. potentiality in it, pressing out far beyond 
its present sphere ; — and, as the necessary consequence of 
these qualities, there is a contrariety in its workings, to those 
of its earthly tenement and of the narrow sphere of its present 
existence ; which contrariety , of itself declares to us that this 
is not its final resting place ; it is cut out for something larger 
than its present relations ; it must look to another state of 
things for harmony, equilibrium, repose. Vast in purpose, 
yet cribbed, cabined, and confined, in operation ; pure and 
holy in its intellective aspirations, yet defiled by its corporeal 
associations ; in nature spiritual, yet in passion and in action 
sensuous ; the admirer of what is heavenly, the lover of what 
is earthly; enduring a continual struggle of jarring impulses; 
distracted by a mysterious antagonism between the judgments 
of the mind and the elections of the will; and drawn out, 
above all, by its earthly senses, afl'ections and appetites to the 
pursuit of objects which, in the very midst of that pursuit, are 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 389 

felt by it to be utterly incommensurable to its nature, entirely 
incapable of satisfying its vast desires — " its very wishes 
giving not its wish ;" how can we force upon ourselves the 
belief that this mysterious being has a common nature and a 
common duration and a common end, with the perishable 
things around us ? how can we think that That in us which 
alone stamps the idea of permanence on any of the fleeting 
apparitions which sweep past the outward sense, can be itself 
not a whit more permanent than those apparitions ? — is hurry- 
ing away with them into the gloomy night of nothingness? 
Do you not feel that you are in all respects, different in kind, 
both from the body in which you dwell ; and from the natural 
phenomena of this material world which through the instru- 
mentality of that body are presented to your view? And 
does not just this very difference in kind, in all other respects, 
assure you of a similar difference with reference to your per- 
manency ; and convince you that while they but come like 
shadows, and so depart, you shall assuredly endure ? 

But what, if you add on to the consideration of these In- 
stincts of our nature, and Conclusions of our intellect, the 
DEMANDS OF OUR MORAL SENSE : — a sense which is a part of 
our nature as much as all our other senses, powers, and facul- 
ties ; — a sense, therefore, which must have, corresponding to 
it, correlative objects, either present or future, to satisfy the 
end for which it is implanted in us. If you look on the eye, 
you conclude from its construction that it is made to see ; and 
you argue from this manifest purpose that God has provided 
a world of objects of sight. If you examine the ear, you find 
it made susceptible of sound; and you judge that it is meant 
for an atmosphere through which sounds may be conveyed to 
it. And in both cases you are right. In all the cases, of 
all your bodily senses, where there is a provision in yourself 



390 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 

for being affected there is equally a provision in the world 
without of objects to affect you. And shall this reciprocation 
stop here? Shall it find its full play as regards the lower 
senses, and be checked and thwarted in the higher sense? 
Shall it hold good in affections of body, and fail only in affec- 
tions of mind? 

And have you then an inward sense as well as outward 
ones? Have you a moral feeling as well as physical ones? 
Are you made capable of being affected, yea by the constitu- 
tion of your nature unable to be otherwise than afi'ected, by 
sentiments of benevolence, — of right — of equity — of perfect- 
ness, — of moral harmony ; — and shall those sentiments always 
find themselves at variance with the world and with each 
other? that moral feeling be always lacerated? that inward 
sense always fail of objects adequate to respond to, and to 
satisfy it ; even as the harmonies of form and colour satisfy 
the eye, — the dulcet strains of music soothe the ear? But 
yet, you know too well, that in this present state of being such 
failure does take place; — such satisfaction is not reached. 
The more our moral sentiments are cultivated, the more are 
they torn and wounded. The finer our spiritual sensibilities, 
the more tremblingly alive do they become to the jar and 
discord of a dissonant world. The more we compare the 
history of individuals, and the history of the earth, with the 
Ideas of what things ought to be, as those ideas present them- 
selves unbidden, yea irrepressibly, to the moral judgment, the 
more do we feel the vast discrepancy of the objects presented 
to us, with the moral sense implanted in us : all things not in 
unison with our ideas of complete benevolence — of rigid right 
— of nicest equity — of entire perfection,— of moral harmony; 
but on the contrary pain ; misfortune ; inequality ; the oppres- 
sion of the good ; the triumph of the wicked ; a world in dis- 
order ; a race of moral beings dwarfed, maimed, curtailed of 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 391 

their proportions, mutilated. And does not this assure to you, 
with a moral evidence as powerful as the moral sense within 
you, that there onust be another state, to make up the defici- 
encies of this ? to rectify the aberrations of this ? to fill up the 
inequalities of this ? to restore the equilibrium which has been 
destroyed in this ? I say that such a beUef is necessary to 
the moralist, to save him from the dark misgivings which 
the contradictions in himself and in the world must other- 
wise produce ;— for only in the future can he seek the coun- 
terweights which shall reset the balance of his convictions, 
and harmonize a belief in virtue with a belief in God ! 

And this, then, leads us to a fourth and final argument for 
our continuance in being, which springs from the convic- 
tions OP OUR RELIGIOUS BELIEF. We ourselves, we cannot but 
feel, are creatures of God. The world of which we are part 
is the creation of God. And all things tell us that this God 
is no mere universal breath, or primary power, but a personal 
Being, intellective, full of purpose and energy, holy, just, and 
good. These convictions rise within us on their own base ; 
built up on their proper arguments ; as we have formerly 
seen. But these convictions contain within them the assurance 
of a life to come. They cannot be sustained in us if we deny a 
life to come. We cannot stop with them. We must go on from 
them, to further conclusions ; or we must go back from them. 
For if there is a God ; and that God is an intelligent, wise, 
benevolent, and powerful Being ; the Creator of this world ; 
then this his world must be the object of his care — his super- 
intendence — his sovereign rule. It has not been launched 
forth into space, and there left to the sport of the conflicting 
elements. It is not sustained by God's life-giving energy, 
and yet unregulated by his presiding mind. There is a moral 
Governor of all things as well as a First Cause. And that 



392 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 

moral Governor, being wise as he is good, and powerful as he 
is wise, must certainly be disposing all things in the world he 
governs, by definite methods, towards a definite end. But, 
what that end is we cannot but judge of according to the moral 
principles which God himself has given us. As he has made 
us in the image of himself, our idea of Hini_, our expectations 
from him^ cannot but be formed according to the dictates of that 
moral nature in which our likeness to him consists. That is, 
we must anticipate^ — we cannot but assure ourselves — that 
this moral Governor of the universe intends to bring about 
such a final harmony as (we have seen already) our moral 
sense, which is the transcript and the index of the mind and 
purpose of God, demands. Therefore, as surely as we believe 
there is a God, so surely are we obliged to believe a further 
state of perfectness ; — and a living on^ for ourselves and 
others, beyond the boundaries of the time now present, into 
that state of perfectness ; in order that the purpose of God to 
both ourselves and others, which here is not accomplished, may 
there be fully realized: — which here seems even frustrated, 
may there become triumphant ; — which here is only in the 
bud, may there expand into maturity. As surely (I must 
repeat) as there is a God ; as surely as He is the moral 
Governor of his creation ; so surely is there for us a per- 
manency of being beyond the grave. We know it. We 
feel it. " Even when we cannot prove it well " (to use the 
words of Bishop Taylor) " we can believe it strongly ; and 
we are sure of the thing even when we are not sure of the 
argument." We have " hope toward God that there shall be 
a resurrection of the dead." Acts xxiv. 15. 

And now then, even on the probabilities of Reason, pause 
for a moment, to consider what a glorious truth is here I Take 
it, not as -a speculative, but a practical conviction. Look at 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 393 

it from the proper point of view — that of application to your- 
self and to your friends. Place yourself in imagination on 
the very verge of the present world, — with life fast ebbing 
away from you :— or place yourself (which you may probably 
do by recollection) at the death-bed of your nearest and your 
dearest, with their last sigh breathing itself forth upon your 
cheek ; — and say, What is the worth of this truth of a per- 
manent existence beyond the grave I The worth of it I And 
could you live a moment without it ? The worth of it I 
When, if you take it away, this present being with all its busy 
interests, and deep emotions, and infinite imaginings, must 
seem to you no better than the unreal mockery of a fairy 
vision I — when you yourself, and all you love, must be indeed 

" Such stuff 
As dreams are made of: and your little life 
Be rounded with a sleep !" * 

And O then let us bless God for the certainties of Revela- 
tion which, on this point, as Christians we enjoy. For your 
mind I doubt not has already anticipated those certainties. 
You have said to yourself, as we have traced the outline of 
our argument. What need of all these probabilities on a matter 
which no one now can doubt ? Why attempt to show from 
Reason what Revelation has for ever settled ? — But let me 
ask you, in return, why are those probabilities needless to you ? 

* How similar the description by .^schylus of untaught, merely animal 
man ! — 

O/ T^MTCX. f/.lv, SXiTOVTi; iSXiTOV f^iMT'/lV, 
aXvoVTiS OVK nxOVOV' OiXX' OVif^KTCilV 

uXtyKioi i/,o^(pa.7ffij tov fjcooc^ov ^povov 

Prometh. 456 — 
" Who, at the first, though seeing, saw not ; hearing, did not hear ; but 
like the. unreal shapes of dreams^ through all their weary time, mixed up in 
wild confusion all things." 

s 5 



394 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, PROBABLE. 

Why does the subject seem so certain, but because you have 
been brought up in a Christian country, under the teaching of 
a Christian church ? The subject was not certain to men of 
old. Those probabilities were all they had; and while they 
scarcely dared to think them more than probabilities, they 
clung to them as their only hope, content to be (if so it were) 
mistaken, rather than be desolate.* Yet you can now se- 
scurely live upon, as your sure possession, a truth which they 
searched for as for silver, and digged for as for hid treasure ! 
O what a triumph for Christianity that (not only upon this 
but other equally important subjects) it has turned mere 
speculations of philosophy into verities of faith I That truths, 
which the wisest and the best of heathen minds could only 
reach by a laborious ascent, the church of Christ has brought 
down from their almost inaccessible heights to lay as the 
foundation stones of popular belief! The ultimate conclu- 
sions of the schools, she now embodies in the elementary pro- 
positions of a Catechism ! Problems once insoluble even by the 
sage, she is commissioned to set forth as axioms, to be relied 
on by the child I Consider, I pray you, the amount of such a 
blessing ministered to you by a Christian church — a Chris- 
tian education — a Christian habit of thinking imperceptibly 
acquired amidst the certainties of Revelation ; — till you prize 
and cherish it as it deserves. Let no one think it a mark of 
wisdom to begin to doubt of ail acknowledged truths. Nur- 
tured in an age of men, labour not to reduce yourself to 
childhood. Born in the light, plunge not back into a darkness 
which is past. Placed on the sure foundation of Christian 

* " But if indeed " says Cicero, " I err, in thinking that man's being is 
permanent, / choose to err : nor will I ever suffer any one to wrest from me 
an error which affords me such repose ! " Quod si in hoc erro, quod animos 
hominum immortales esse credam, lubenter erro : nee mihi hunc errorera, quo 
delector, dum yIvo, extorqueri volo. — De Seneciute, 23. 



THE PERMANENCV OF THE SOULj PROBABLE. 395 

faith^ attempt not to dig up the solid masonry ; but on that 
sure foundation rear the noble edifice of Christian holiness, — 
itself the labour of a life. For " blessed are your eyes if they 
see ; and your ears if they hear ! For verily I say unto you 
that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see 
those things which ye see, and have not seen them ; and to 
hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them ! " 



396 



SECTION II. 

THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 

We have seen the probabilities of Reason, on the important 
subject of the permanency of our being. We have now to 
pass on to the certainties of Revelation. 

In turning to which certainties we must remind ourselves of 
the original proposition, of which we are seeking the proof : 
this namely,, that the Christian may repose his Hope on the 
assurance that his Union with his Lo7'd shall be continued on- 
ward, even through the gates of death, into the everlasting 
world. It is of Christian Hope that we are treating : and it is 
concerning the condition of the member of Christ, in that new 
sphere of things which opens out beyond the grave, that we 
are to collect the declarations of the word of God. 

Now the sum of such declarations, so far as they bear upon 
our Christian Hope, amounts to this : First, That death pro- 
duces no interruption of what we at present enjoy : and 
Secondly, That it affords the introduction to what we at 
present are wanting in. 

First, the word of God reveals to us, that Death produces 
no interruption of what we at present enjoy. 

Look, first, at the Life which you now enjoy. The life, I 
mean, not of the body but of the mind ; — your thinking, feel- 
ing, willing, life. This, your very consciousness assures you, 
is distinct from that of the body in which you dwell. And 
this, therefore, we have reason to suppose, even from the 
arguments of the preceding section, cannot be affected by the 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL^ CERTAIN. 397 

dissolution of that of which it forms no part. But we have to 
do now, not with suppositions but assertions ;• — not with the 
reasonings of man, but with the declarations of God. Our 
blessed Lord came forth from the world of spirits into the 
world of sense. In this world of sense he proved himself, by 
incontrovertible evidence, the Son of God. And He, this 
Son of God, who speaks the words of God, — what does He 
say upon this point of the duration of that being which I call 
my Self? The passage from which I seek the answer to this 
question is as remarkable for its context, as for its independent 
force. It is that of John xi. 25, 23. " He that believeth in 
me, though he were dead yet shall he live ; and whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Now in what 
connexion were these words uttered by our blessed Lord ? 
Lazarus was dead. Mary was sitting in silent sorrow. 
Martha, with her more active temperament, had run to Jesus, 
and said, almost reproachfully, " If thou hadst been here my 
brother had not died I " Nor had she failed to subjoin her 
expectation, and her wish, of some immediate consolation, (she 
knew not perhaps precisely what.) from her gracious Lord. 
" But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of 
God, God will give it thee." And to this the reply of Jesus 
is, " Thy brother shall rise again." But in such an assurance 
there was nothing new to Martha. A future resurrection was 
the established doctrine of the Jews. Nay, in such an as- 
surance there was nothing which met \iQY py-esent grief and 
the yearnings of her soul with reference to her brother's 
present state. And she answers therefore, *' / know that he 
shall rise again, in the resurrection at the last day I " " It is 
part of our national creed that when Messiah shall come, all 
his people shall be recovered from hades to meet him ! " Now 
mark the answer of Jesus to this : an answer evidently given, 
to explain to her the sense in which he adopted that ordinary term 



398 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 

" the Resurrection ;" — the sense in which he had just declared 
to her, Thy brother shall rise again ; — and therefore the sense 
in which we must understand him, when he uses these terms 
in other places ; in the sixth chapter, for example, of this 
same Gospel by St. John. Mark, I say, this answer ; by 
which he intimates that he meant not, in what he had said, 
to direct the hopes of Martha, to that final resurrection at the 
end of the world, to which, in common with her countrymen she 
was already looking forward ; but to meet the particular case of 
her present distress^ and her present desires : — an answer by 
which he shows that the true, Christian, view of " rising again" 
is not merely ^. future return to life, but d, present continuance 
in life ; not a distant hope, but an immediate possession ; not a 
going down to death and a subsequent rescue from his gloomy 
cavern, but an exemption from death, and a present preserva- 
tion from his benumbing touch, so far as regards the Self — 
the Soul. For, " Jesus said unto her, / am the resurrection, 
and the life y" that which you look for d,^ future — behold the 
Author of it, yea the Source of all Life, present as well as 
future, now before your eyes ! — " And he that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live : yea whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me shall never die."* The believer in 
Jesus partakes of the life of Jesus ; and that life of Jesus 
endures no interruption^ meets with no check, is exposed to no 
even momentary, diminution ; and therefore, he who partakes 
that life, though seemingly dead, and as to his body really 
dead ; yet dies never as to his soul. If there were nothing 
more asserted, in these remarkable words, than a future resur- 
rection, what had Jesus said beyond what Martha already 
knew, yea had already reminded him that she knew ? What 

* As if lie had said, " You complain, ' If thou hadst been here my brother 
had not died.'' But he is not dead, as regards his soul ! The believer never, 
in this sense, dies ! " 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 399 

was there to require his solemn assurance " I AM the resurrec- 
tion, and the life " — look to ME for what you long for, and not 
to some final restoration? What was there to call for his 
searching question,, by which he tested her faith in Himself 
specifically, and independently of that doctrine which she had 
already professed — " Believest thou this ?" And what was 
there to draw forth her earnest declaration of satisfied affiance 
in (over and above that doctrine) the personal dignity and 
power of Jesus himself: " Lord I believe that thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God!" Does he not plainly 
teach by all this that, to his people, besides \h2X future resur- 
rection^ there is secured the permanency of this present life, 
which they now enjoy? He that believeth in Jesus, though 
he be dead, yet still he lives I 

But, as death is no interruption of our present Life, so 
neither is it of our present consciousness. The state of the 
disembodied spirit is not a slumbering but a waking one. 
The image of sleep, which is so common in Scripture, is used, 
not of the soid, which lives ; but only of the body, which has 
died. And as " to be alive " in the present state, as spoken 
of our mind, is to possess the vigour, and exercise the ener- 
gies, of its several powers ; — the deliberating judgment, the 
intelligent purpose, the conscious feeling, the determining 
will ; so " to be alive " in the next state, is to be not simply 
existing, but existing in vigour ; — yea in the vigour of self- 
conscious energizing. This is the force of our Lord's reason- 
ing with the Sadducees, Luke xx. 27 — 38 ; in which you will 
observe again, (what has been already noticed,) that Jesus, 
when contending for " the resurrection of the dead/' argues 
for that sense of the phrase which declares, not d. future restora- 
tion, but a present existence. For he brings forward, in proof 
of this great fact " that the dead are raised" a declaration 



400 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 

which shows, — not that they shall be, at some future time, 
transferred from the slumber of the grave into renewed con- 
sciousness ; but that they are, now, existing, beyond the 
grave, in such consciousness. For what is his proof " that 
the dead are raised ? " Just the recognition, in the book of 
God, of the present existeyice, yea, the active, conscious ex- 
istence of the buried patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.* 
For he says, " Now that the dead are raised," (which must, 
from the context, mean, " are transferred from this lower to a 
higher life,") " even Moses shewed at the bush ;" {i. e. at 
that part of the book of Exodus which speaks of God's 
appearing to him in the bush ; Exod. iii. 2 ; long, therefore, 
after the patriarchs were dead and buried) " when he calleth 
the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the 
God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead but of the 
living : " he cannot, i. e. speak of himself as the Friend — the 
Protector — the Promise-keeper — to those who are not in ex- 
istence to be the objects of his favour ; nay, nor unless they are 
in conscious existence to enjoy that favour : " for " (he adds) 
" all live to him;'' all those patriarchs,-|- though dead to the 
world are living still in the sight, and in the service, of Him.:}: 

* Macknight, of all the commentators, seems to me to have stated the argu- 
ment of our Lord here the most simply and correctly : " His argument was 
this : As a man cannot be a father without children, nor a king without sub- 
jects, so God cannot properly be called God, unless he has his people, and be 
Lord of the living. Since therefore, in the law, he calls himself the God of 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, long after these patriarchs were dead, the relation 
denoted by the word God still subsisted between them ; for which reason. . . 
they were still in being, God's subjects and covenanted people." § 118. 
'I' " Omnes : " illi nimirum, Abrahamus, Is. Jac. — Grotius. 
X Coram Domino. — Luc. Brugensis. " Subject to his government." — 
IVTacknight. " The godly do not die though they die here on earth." — Beza. 
" Why then their loss deplore, that are not lost ? — > 
They live ! they greatly live a life, on earth 
Unkindled, unconceived ! " — Young. 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 401 

Just as in Josephus, the mother encourages her sons rather to 
die than transgress the law of God, " being assured of this 
that those who have given up life for the sake of God, still 
LIVE TO God, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and ail the patriarchs 
dor * Just as Philo, again, introduces the Lord himself as 
saying, " But no one ever dies as regards his relation to me, 
the Judge of men ; yea rather he lives throughout all time, 
without growing old, and with the deathless energy of a soul 
no longer clogged by the necessities of the body."f 

With all which doctrine, I need not tell you, agrees the pro- 
mise of Jesus to the dying thief, " To day shalt thou be with 
me in Paradise.'' Luke xxiii. 43. And the declaration of 
Paul concerning his dismissal from the flesh, " having a desire 
to depart and to be with Christ ; which is far better." Phil. i. 
23. Nay and his certain confidence of the nature of the 
change which awaited him, " We are willing rather to be ab- 
sent from the body and present with the Lord, and therefore 
we labour that whether jwesent or absent we may be accepted 
of him." 2 Cor. v. 8, 9. With which accords his general 
assurance with respect to all Christians, " Christ died for us 
that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with 
him." 1 Thess. V. 10. All these passages declaring not sim- 
ply a continued existence of the soul, whether the body be 
awake or asleep ; but this existence accompanied with a con- 
sciousness of the relation in which we stand to Christ, and 
Christ to us ; — with the sense of his presence ; — with the 
enjoyment of communion with him ; — in a word, with all that 

* Joseph: de Maccab. C. 16. kk) Tavra n^ort?, on ol ^la tov @iov a.7ro- 
Svyiffxovns ^uffi tm &iM, ajff<pri^ AQpocaf^, l(ra,a,K, kk) IxfccoS, Kxt ^avTZs ot 

'f' Philo de Joseph : ii. 78. nSv/iKZ %\u^it? vng if/,ot, k^ityi tuv a\i'$^Mv, 

(TCOfiKTOS Ct,Va,'yXKt$ iv'Si^VfAiV/]. 



402 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 

the Christian now experiences of the conscious exercise of love, 
and faith, and hope ; of dependence on God's protection, sense 
of his favour, looking for promises to be fulfilled, and waiting 
for manifestations to be made — all this, in all its hfe, continued 
on with him into another state. 

Nor is this all. There is a third particular of our present 
enjoyment, to which no interruption is caused by death. Not 
only the vigour of life — not only the energy of consciousness, 
and that towards God and Christ, go on without pause or 
check ; but also the glow of sympathy with the family of God. 

And first, with that portion of it which is in heaven. When 
St. Paul declares to the Hebrews that they are brought by 
faith into union with the family of God, of whom does he re- 
present that family to consist ? — all spoken of in the same 
terms — all as existing in close connexion and communion. 
" Ye are come" he saj^s, to an innumerable company of angels, 
to the general assembly" (the festive meeting of social joy and 
triumph"^') " and church of the first-born which are written in 
heaven, and to God the Judge of all,+ and to the spirits of just 
men made p)erfect., and to Jesus the mediator of the new cove- 
nant." Heb. xii. 22 — 24. Where the point I wish to press is 
the perfect identity of terms^ in which the Apostle speaks of all 

*' For 'Tfa.rhyvq^ii denotes tlie solemn festive meeting of a wtole people for 
public fellowship and rejoicing ; such, as the Grecian states had, some 
yearly, some every fourth year ; such as the re-unions among the Jews in 
which they came together from all parts of the world to the feast of the Lord 
in their holy city, and which Josephus calls 'xa'^nyv^ui 'Tra.'thn^Qu See Dindorf 
in Ernesti. How exhilarating an image ! How glorious the feeling of such 
a gathering of aU the people of God that on this earth are scattered abroad ! 
You see them in the Apocah^se, ynih. their white robes of triumph — you hear 
their chant of festive adoration ! Rev. v. 8 — 10. vii. 9 — 12. 

+ How striking that epithet ! " The Judge of all ; " — the presiding Ruler 
(B^oc^ivThs) of the Festival, who distributes the prizes which diffuse hilarity 
and exultation over that joyous meeting. See Carpzov. And comp. 1 Pet, iv. 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 403 

the individuals composing this glorious band ; so that, what is 
true of one or more of the group must be admitted as true of 
all. For is the ascended Jesus alive, and conscious, and sym- 
pathizing, with his Father, and the holy angels ? Are those 
angels themselves alive, and conscious, and sympathizing with 
all the works and ways of God ? alert as winds, and vigorous 
as flame? And are not the " spirits of just men'' who have 
finished their course, and reached the goal of their high calling, 
— are not these also included in this same festival enjoyment of 
life, and consciousness and energy and sympathy ? We hiow 
they are from another passage, even more direct than this : 
from the express revelation vouchsafed to the Apostle John, 
the actual vision of those who had gone before him ; and who, 
to use the words of St. Peter, though put to death in the flesh 
were alive in the spirit ; " for, for this cause," (he says,) " was 
the gospel preached to them who now are dead, that though 
judged according to men in the flesh," i. e. though condemned, 
and martyred by men as regards their corporeal tabernacle, 
" they yet might live according to God in the spirit^' might 
continue to live in the sight of their heavenly Father, as 
regards their soul, their self. 1 Pet. iv. 6.* For what says 

h,^.q. d. Now you meet with, nothing but injustice, but " God is at band to 
judge the quick and the dead," and in his sight, though dead, to the world, and 
trampled on, the saints do live and triumph ! Philo uses the same epithet, 
with the same implied reference, in the passage quoted above, p. 401. " No 
one ever dies as regards his relation to me, the Judge,'''' the presiding and 
retributive Ruler, "of men." 

* " Them that are dead ; " that have been taken from you by premature 
death and martyrdom. Comp. Ruth, i. 8. " The Lord deal kindly with you as 
you have dealt with the dead'''' (my sons who have been taken from me) " and 
me." These martyrs have suffered indeed all that men coidd do against them, 
{^xara, a.v6^M'7rov?, quod in hominibus est : cf. Matt. x. 28) — their bodies have 
been killed by them ; — but they do not lose their part and interest in the 
glad tidings which were proclaimed to them, equally as to you — (cf. 1 Thess. 
iv. 13, 14,) they live by God's power (»«r« @iov quod in Deo est ; Dei virtute) 
in the spirit, and he will award to them, along with you, his final glory ! If 



404 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 

the Apostle John concerning such ? "I beheld, and lo, a 
great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations 
and kindreds and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, 
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in 
their hands;" (the emblems of victory and triumph) " and 
cried with a loud voice, saying Salvation to our God which 
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the 
angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and 
the four living creatures, and fell before the throne on their 
faces, and worshipped God." Rev. vii. 9 — 11. And here 
again the point which I press is simply this, that whatever is 
true, and to what extent soever it is true, with reference to any 
one portion of this triumphant band is equally true of the other 
portions. If the angels live, so do " the great multitude;" if 
the angels rejoice before God, so do the redeemed: there is 
one company/ of men and angels, before the mind's eye of the 
inspired Apostle, engaged in the same work; animated by the 
same spirit ; singing the same song ; swelling the same chorus 
of adoration to their common Father and their common Lord. 
O there is no want of sympathy — no lack of communion — 
no dreary solitariness — no dreamy suspension of interest — for 
the spirits of the just ; but all do live, to their brethren as 
well as to their God ! 

Nor, then, is there any interruption of their sympathy, even 
with the church on earth, " I saw" says the same Apostle, 

they live not now, — if they shall not be " judged " and vindicated hereafter, 
— of w^hat use to them the glad tidings which were preached to them before 
their death ? Then is their hope perished -with them ! " Intelligendi vm^a), 
non qui mortui erant ciim eis annunciaretur Christus, sed qui mortui erant 
cum Petrus haec scriberet. Christus voluit Evangelium annunciari etiam iis 
qui jam sunt mortui. Ergo, non vivos tantum sed et mortuos, judicabit. 
AHoqui frustra illis annunciatus esset, frustra illi credidissent, et dura per- 
tulissent." — Grotjus. 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 405 

" under the altar^* the souls of them that were slain for the 
word of God, and for the testimony which they held; and 
they cried with a loud voice, saying. How long, O Lord, holy 
and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them 
that dwell on the earth ? And white robes were given unto 
every one of them ;" (as signs and pledges of final victory) 
" and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a 
little season^ until their fellow servants also and their brethren-, 
that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." Rev. 
vi. 9 — 11. Where you see depicted an interest in God's peo- 
ple on earth — a zeal for God's honour — a longing for the ma- 
nifestation of God's righteous retribution — a sympathy with 
those of their brethren yet in the flesh, who were to go through 
similar persecutions ; i. e. you see the exercise of the grace of 
brotherly lorn ; — and yet all this moderated and made perfectly 
consistent with a state of bliss, by the exercise, at the same 
time, of those other two cardinal graces of God's saints, which 
in heaven as well as on earth ; with the redeemed as well as 
the conflicting Christian ; for ever as well as for our few short 
years of earthly being, characterize the servants of Christ — the 
graces, I mean, of Faith in God's hidden purposes, and Hope 
of God's further manifestations.t " It was said to them, that 
they should rest ^ rest, i. e. on the hidden purposes of God 
concerning their brethren who were still conflicting with the 
world — exercise that Faith which resolves all things perplex- 
ing into God's sovereign pleasure ; — sympathise, but without 
impatience ; love their brethren, but without anxiety ; and wait 

* Prostrate as suppliants at its feet ; (for the altar was a lofty structure.) 
f 1 Cor. xiii. 13. "And now ahideth faith, hope, charity, these three." 
Gifts are temporary ; graces are eternal. The aecomplishnents of the Christian 
by which he makes a figure in this world, and which therefore he is too ready 
to prefer, shall with this world vanish away : the dispositions of the Christian, 
towards God and towards his brethren, these go on with him into the world 
which is to come. 



406 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 

upon the Lord. And this was more than said to them. It 
was commended by expressive symbols, which should sustain 
their Hope. " White robes were given unto them" — the 
emblems of final triumph, for the universal church as well as 
for themselves, were put around them ; as pledges that God's 
glory should assuredly be displayed ; his retributive justice be 
honoured ; disorder, and rebellion, and cruelty, and sin, not 
always have the upper hand ; but^ " when their brethren 
should be fulfilled ;" the number of God's elect accomplished, 
then should his kingdom come ; his will be done on earth as it 
is done in heaven ; and He himself, the Lord of hosts, should 
" REIGN before his ancients gloriously I " 

Thus then you see from the word of God, that the Chris- 
tian's condition after death is one of immediate life — and con- 
sciousness — and social sympathy : that is, that Death occasions 
no interruption of what we at present enjoy. And would you 
have still further warrant for this Hope, it is supplied to you by 
example, as well as promise ; in facts as well as words. Look 
to the believer's union with Christ, and to the example and 
pledge which is afibrded to him in the history of Christ, that 
not all of him shall die, nor fall into unconsciousness ; but that 
like to his Forerunner and Representative, he shall pass only 
from one condition of active being to another. What was the 
state of Christ from the period of his crucifixion to his rising 
again ? Was his soul plunged into Lethean slumber while his 
body lay in the grave ? Were his spiritual powers paralysed 
while his bodily senses slept ? Had he not, rather, expressly 
told his Apostles, " A little while and ye shall not see me, and 
again a little while and ye shall see me, because I ^o to the Father'' 
John xvi. 17, and xiv. 28. Did he not say to the dying thief, 
" To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise ? " Luke xxiii. 43. 
Was he not, though " put to death in the flesh, yet quickened 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 407 

in the spirit ? " * 1 Peter iii. 1 9. Did he not " in that spirit 
go and preach to the spirits in prison" — proclaim to them his 
triumph and sovereignty? 1 Peter iii. 20. Was he not " seen 
of angels," — presented to the homage of the hosts of heaven ? 
1 Tim. iii. 16. Heh. i. 6. There was no pause of life and 
energy between the death of Jesus and his resurrection. And 
neither, therefore, need the believer in Jesus fear a pause of 
life and energy between his death, and Jiis final, however long 
delayed, resurrection. " In my Father's house are many man- 
sions, I go to prepare a pilace for you. And if I go and prepare 
a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that 
where I am there ye may he also" John xiv. 2, 3. 

And O then the peace, the hope, with which the Christian 
may look to death ! Death is truly the gate of life ! All its 
mournful accessories of disease, and pain, and dissolution, are 
but the breaking down the harrier which shuts out from liberty 
and joy. We do not become nonentities when we pass on to 
the world of essential entity ; nor shadows by entering into the 
region of reality. We do not put off our proper being, when 
we put oiF the earthly clothing of that being. We do not lose 
our Self, when we lose our flesh. But all that you now are as 
a member of Christ and child of God, continues with you as an 
inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. Do you know now what 
it is to live to God — to love God, serve God, hold communion 
with God, exercise faith and hope in God, and glow with zeal 
and love for all the family of God ? And shall the icy touch of 
death freeze up, in a moment, the genial current of your soul ? 
Shall the Christian, to whom death is called a gain^ be by 
that death despoiled of all his present patrimony ? Has God 
begun to quicken you by his Spirit, in this world of sense, and 
shall that Spirit fail you in the world of spirit'? Are you 

* HvtvfjLaTt' As to his body he died, as to his spirit he still lived. Comp . 
eh. iv. 6. John vi. 63. 



08 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 

alive to God in this region of darkness, and shall you become 
dead to God in that atmosphere of light ? Nay rather — we are 
taught to think that God ^^ takes to himself the sovl" of our 
departed brother in the Lord. We are encouraged, even when 
the gloomy tomb and the mouldering body are immediately 
before our eyes, to say, " Almighty God, with whom do live 
THE SPIRITS of them that depart hence in the Lord, and with 
whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the 
burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity, we give thee hearty 
thanks when it doth please thee to deliver thy people out of 
the miseries of this sinful world I " 

But the Certainties of Revelation with respect to our future 
being stop not here. They assure us not only that death 
occasions no interruption of what we at present enjoy, but also 

that it AFFORDS THE INTRODUCTION TO WHAT WE AT PRESENT 
ARE WANTING IN. 

For the state of the Christian after death consists, in the 
first place, in complete immunity from trial. 

The present world is a world of probation. That is th^ 
specific light in which we should regard it. And the more 
we look at it as such the better shall we reconcile to ourselves 
the many difficulties with which its history is cumbered. This 
world is a world of probation. And for probation there must 
be tests : and these tests must be furnished from all depart- 
ments of our nature and condition. And therefore, where 
there is to be probation there must be provided pain and sor- 
row for the physical in us — temptation for the moral in us — 
perplexity for the mental in us — depression for the spiritual in 
us. And all these tests, so far from being spared to the Chris- 
tian, in particular, become often multiplied, in order to the 
very end for which he has been brought to the knowledge of 
Christ and the love of God, — even his sanctification. The 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 409 

very exercise of his graces requires them. The very growth 
of his character demands them. The very prayers which he 
is continually breathing forth for moral improvement find their 
answer in them. Affliction, temptation, difficulty, doubt, 
these are the very medicines by whose salutary action there 
must be roused the vital energy within us, and our spiritual 
recovery advanced. 

Trial, then, is our portion now, because now our state is one 
of probation. But the life hereafter is no state of probation, 
and therefore none of trial. Nothing is plainer throughout 
the word of God than this ; that while probation lasts, up to 
the moment of our passing out of the body, it goes not onward 
with us when from that body we have passed out. The con- 
trast is most marked in Scripture. The change exhibited is 
complete. As great as that from the rollings of the open 
ocean to the glassy smoothness of the sheltered haven. On 
one side, turbulence ; on the other, peace. On one, the need 
of watchfulness, efi*ort, skill, and boldness : on the other, only 
to furl our sails, to drop our anchor,, and to ride with gentle 
undulation on the bosom of the friendly deep. Look at one 
testimony to this blessed change, in Rev. xiv. 13, "I heard a 
voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the 
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the 
Spirit, that they may rest from their labours" Look at 
another in Rev. vii 13—17, (where you see the blessed spirits 
breathing nothing but tranquillity, and reposing from the toil 
and heat of earthly being in the sheltering groves of heaven ! ) 
" What are these which are arrayed in white robes ? and 
whence came they ? These are they which came out of great 
tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they shall hunger no 
more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on 
them nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of 

T 



410 THE TERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 

the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living 
fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes I " O the inconceivable translation, from sickness 
to health — from pain to ease — from the weariness of conflict 
to the repose of triumph I " There remaineth a rest for the 
people of God I " Heb. iv. 9. 

But the Christian will gain by death, yet further, complete 
deliverance from sin. Now, alas ! even when outward trial 
is spared him, he has daily to mourn over his exceeding insuf- 
ficiency for the service of God. I know not, indeed, whether 
we do not sometimes create for ourselves an anxiety on this 
point, which we ought not to feel ; whether our zeal is always 
so pure as it is vehement ; whether our desires and our 
struggles for more of what we fancy usefulness are not often 
the cravings of a spiritual ambition, rather than the quiet sur- 
render of ourselves to do or to suffer God's will. " They also 
serve who wait." It was a maxim of one of the seven wise 
men. Do not attempt impossibilities. And God's require- 
ments of his people are limited by reference to the powers 
which he has given us, and the opportunities which he vouch- 
safes. "As every man hath received the gift^ even so let him 
minister the same as a good steward of the manifold grace of 
God." 1 Pet. iv. 10. And hence you see the holy Paul, the 
most energetic of Christ's servants, at the same time entirely 
submissive as to the manner in which he should serve him. It 
mattered not to him how much he was enabled to do, provided 
only he were full of the spirit of readiness for doing. " For 
he said unto me. My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my 
strength is perfected in weakness :" (that is, the power of my 
grace is then most fully manifested when the agents I employ 
are nothing in themselves; 1 Cor. i. 25 — 30.) "Most gladly 
therefore will I rather glory in infirmities," (instead of mur- 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 411 

muring at them as injurious to my Master's cause,) " that the 
power of Christ may rest upon me ! " 2 Cor. xii. 9. 

But still the evil remains. We cannot serve God as we 
would. We do not serve him as we can. It is our hourly 
shame, that even when the spirit is willing the flesh is weak. 
And how then must we estimate the blessedness of that state, 
where, with the spirit yet more willing, there shall be no flesh 
to be weak I Where to will, shall be to do ! Yet nothing 
less than this is set before us as the portion of the liberated 
saints. " They are before the throne of God, and serve him 
day and night in his temple I " Rev. vii. 15. 

Nor is this all. Death, to the Christian, is his introduction, 
thirdly, to complete enjoyment of the presence of his Lord. 
This is the consummation of what we are now in need of. For 
we possess a spiritual, as well as a sentient, and moral, nature. 
And while for the sentient we need exemption from sorrow, 
and for the moral, deliverance from sin ; nothing will suit and 
satisfy the spiritual, but full communion with our blessed Lord. 
For what is that spiritual nature ? It is the impress of the 
image of God. And in whom is that image manifested in all 
its fulness but in the only-begotten Son of God ? How does 
it shine forth to the angels in heaven, but through him who is 
the visible ray from the invisible fount of Deity ; " the bright- 
ness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his 
person ? " And how then shall the godlike which has been 
quickened in our souls reach its proper blessedness, but as it 
comes into the full beholding and the abiding presence of Him 
in whom all the Father shines ? Whence, all the Christian's 
happiness is summed up by our Lord in this one point. All, 
that in other parts of Scripture, is expressed by various images, 
as the particular occasion most required — sometimes as rest to 
the weary — sometimes as comfort to the sorrowful — sometimes 

t2 



412 THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL, CERTAIN. 

as satisfaction to the hungerer after righteousness — is compre- 
hended by the Son of God in that one single Idea of His pre- 
sence. " If any man serve me, let him follow me ; and where 
I am, there shall also my servant he'' John xii. 26. " Father, 
I will that they whom thou hast given me, be witJi me where I 
am ; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given 
me ! " John xvii. 24. This, I say, is the consummation of all 
we need. And this we are raised to when our ransomed 
spirits, with our last sigh, escape the prison of the flesh. 
Paul judged that to " depart" from this world was to be 
" with Christ" — to be " absent from the body" was to be 
"j':>re5e?z^ with the Lord !'\ And the dying Stephen cried, "I 
see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the 
right hand of God I — ^Lord Jesus receive my spirit ! " Acts 
vii, 56, 5d. 

See then, in conclusion, how essential to our very undef'^ 
standing of the hope of the Christian as regards the perma- 
nency of his being, is a spiritual union and communion now, 
with him who is the resurrection and the life. It is only " by 
eating him that we can live by him." That is, it is only by 
receiving him now into our hearts by faith, that we can par- 
take of his never-failing life hereafter. Spiritual life and 
eternal life are spoken of in Scripture as not so much two 
things, as one and the same thing in two different stages of 
developement. The one the root, the other the full-blown 
flower. The one the infancy, the other the manhood, of the 
child of God. Grace is glory begun. And glory is grace 
made perfect. " He," says the Lord^, " that heareth my word, 
and believeth on him that sent me, hatV (not shall have) 
" everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; but 
is j^O'Ssed" — has passed already, (the tense is the pluperfect) 



THE PERMANENCY OF THE SOUL CERTAIN. 413 

by the very" fact of that his hearing of my word, and faith in 
God — " from death unto life." John v. 24. 

And hence it is that it is a work of the Holy Ghost to form 
in us the hope of this permanency of being with our Lord. 
Because the indwelling of the Spirit, as the medium of Christ's 
presence to us now, can give the only solid pledge to us of 
participation in his presence hereafter. How did Paul know 
that he should when " absent from the body" be " present 
with the Lord? " Because, (he tells us,) " God had wrought 
him for this selfsame thing ;" had moulded his spirit by rege- 
nerating grace into the capacity for, and therefore the assur- 
ance of, this consummation ; " who also" (he goes on) " has 
given unto us the earnest of the Spirit^' 2 Cor. v. .5. 

And O then what an experimental thing is Christian hope- 
real, lively hope ! How impossible to derive it from a general 
promise without us, unless it be authenticated by an answering 
pledge within us. It is the Spirit's work, you see, is such a 
hope. And hence the Apostle prays that the Romans " may 
abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost,'' Rom. 
XV. 1 3. What if, peradventure, you feel your hope to be feeble, 
dim, uncertain, scarcely deserving the name ? Is it, perhaps, 
that you have not yet been " wrought for this selfsame thing" by 
the Spirit of God? been brought into that spiritual frame 
which is the soil in which true hope expands ? Are you 
wanting in faith ? wanting in love ? wanting in that repent- 
ance, renewal, regeneration, of which faith and love are the 
sign ? Then, no wonder if you are wanting also in hope I It 
is " Christ in you^' says Paul to the Colossians, " which 
forms the hope of glory T Col. i. 21. " If any man have not 
the Spirit of Christ," he says elsewhere, " he is none of his. 
But if Christ he in you, the body indeed must die because of 
sin, but the spirit shall live because of righteousness I " Rom. 
viii. 10. 



414 



SECTION IIL 

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 

Why has our blessed Lord constituted a Church — a com- 
munion of saints ? Because man, by himself, remains only 
half developed. Because both his holiness and happiness 
require, for their nourishment, communication. Because, in a 
word, each man was made to be one of many, and only in con- 
junction with those many is fully a man. The social instinct 
is an essential element of our nature ; and it is therefore 
impossible so to regard ourselves, as not to take in the relation 
in lohich we stand to other beings ; as not to perceive, that our 
condition must be essentially aflfected, whether for good or for 
evil, by that relation. 

And hence it results that, as regards the world before us, as 
well as the world around us, we must look at things as social, 
as well as individual, beings ; we cannot but have an interest 
not only in our personal destination, but in that destination as 
related to the destination of the great human family with which 
we are connected. Christian hope depends necessarily on the 
solution of a threefold question : — What shall become of our- 
selves as individuals ? — What shall become of ourselves m 
relation to the world of which we form a part ?— And what shall 
become of that world itself of which we form a part ? 

Now, the first of these questions is sufficiently answered by 
the doctrine of the jjermanenci/ of the sold. The second can- 
not receive its adequate solution without the doctrine of the 
resurrection of the body. The permanency of the soul, or our 
continued spiritual life in Christ beyond this earth, concerns us 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 415 

as individuals. The resurrection of the body, or our return to 
a sensuous life upon this earth, concerns us, both as members 
of Christ's church, and of the world which he came to redeem 
into a kingdom for his saints. 

And what then is the essence of that hope which we pro- 
fess in our Creed, when we declare, " I believe in the resur- 
rection OF the body ? " 

Our right answer to this question depends, I think, upon 
three other preliminary ones : — What is my body ? What m2/ 
relation to it ? And what the eiid and purpose for which it is 
given to me ? 

First, What is my hody ? Is it my Self? my proper being ? 
Most certainly No ! For then, the dissolution of my body 
would be the dissolution of my self, my proper being ; which 
(as we have seen in a former section) both Reason and Reve- 
lation forbid us to suppose. 

And is it then a part of my self? a part so strictly, that, 
without it, this self must be imperfect, mutilated, fragmentary ? 
Again, most certainly No ! For then, my separation from the 
body would be a dividing of my self; which, again, both rea- 
son and revelation forbid me to suppose. It is, indeed, not 
uncommon to find Man defined as a being made up of soul 
and body; as if each of these parts were equally essential 
elements of his being ; and the Individual, Man, could not be 
conceived in his completeness but as the compound formed by 
the union of both. But then^ if this were so, all hope of con- 
tinued integral existence after death — all hope especially of 
consciousness — all hope of personal identity — all hope, that is, 
of what the word of God (as we have seen) assures to us as 
our privilege in Christ, is gone ! For then, it would not be 
the r}ian who would survive the grave ; but only a part of the 



416 THE RESUBRECTION OF THE BODY. 

man; — a fragment which, when joined to another fragment, 
from which by death it is divided, would make up the Man ; 
but which, by itself, cannot he the Man. Then, when my body 
dies, I cannot say that I survive. My Self is gone. My 
individuality is dispersed abroad. My personal identity is 
destroyed. One portion of my self has fled in one direction ; 
another, in another. One, crumbled into dust ; another dissi- 
pated into air. I am, and I am not, at the same moment I 
And therefore, this system of matter which I call my body, is 
most assuredly, neither m^ Self- — nor an essential part of my 
Self. 

And what, then, is the relation of this system of matter 
to my self? It is the relation, as of a dwelling to its inhabit- 
ant — of a temporary tent to its permanent owner — of an 
adventitious garment to a substantial being — of an unconscious 
instrument to an intelligent agent — of a thing^ which is to be 
kept down, to a person who is to rule. " We dwell " says the 
book of Job, " in houses of clay." Job. iv. 19. " If our 
earthly house" says Paul, " were dissolved, we have a building 
of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
2 Cor. V. 1. "I must shortly put off this my tabernacle''' says 
St. Peter. % Peter i. 14. " We that are in this tabernacle" 
says St. Paul, " do groan, being burdened ; not for that we 
would be unclothed, but clothed upon." 2 Cor, v. 4. " Yield 
not your members," he exhorts the Romans, " as instruments 
of unrighteousness unto sin." Rom. vi. 13. "I keep under 
my body,' he says of himself, " and bring it into subjection." 
1 Cor. ix. 27. 

Whence also you see the end and purpose for which this 
body is given to man. It is as the medium of communication 
between the immaterial spirit and sensible things ; the instru- 



I 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 417 

ment by which we receive impressions from a sensuous world 
and produce impressions on that world in return ; the indis- 
pensable condition for our intercourse on earthy with the things 
and the persons on earth. It is that by which I manifest my 
thoughts, my feelings, my will, to others ; and receive the ma- 
nifestations of their thoughts, and feelings, and will, to me. 
As individual beings, there are states, even here, in which we 
seem almost independent of its instrumentality, or at least in- 
sensible of its presence. " I knew a man in Christ" says the 
Apostle, " whether in the body I cannot tell, or out of the body 
I cannot tell, God knoweth, such an one caught up to the third 
heaven." £ Cor. xii. 2. But then, as social beings, in a world 
of sense, it is indispensable to us. We can know and be 
known ; we can sympathise and be sympathised with ; we can 
act and be acted on, only as we look out, as it were, through 
the windows of our earthly habitation — as we speak and move, 
and feel, and act, by the agency of the wondrous machine in 
which we are inclosed. God himself — the Spirit — could make 
himself manifest in a world of sense, only under the forms of 
sense. " There stood three men by Abraham" — their appear- 
ance was no other : though Abraham soon found with regard 
to one of them, (not from external but internal evidence,) that 
" he stood before the Lord." Gen. xviii. 2, 1 6, 22. The 
Son of God could come into association with the earth which 
he was to redeem, and the men whom he was to teach, and 
succour, and guide, only by being " made flesh" (i. e. taking 
up his tabernacle in a body) " among us." John i. 14. And 
just for the very reason that he was to save, not merely by the 
fiat of divine volition, but by the training men into the know- 
ledge of himself and the communion of his Spirit, so that he 
who sanctified and they who were sanctified might be all of 
one family, and he might not be ashamed to call them brethren, 
saying " I will declare thy name unto my brethren ; in the 

T 5 



418 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 

midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee" — just for this 
reason, (the Apostle argues,) " even as the children are par- 
takers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of 
the same." Heb. ii. 14. 

And now then I trust, we are prepared to understand the 
doctrine, and to see the necessity, of that " Resurrection of 
the body" which the Scripture assures to us. Body is the 
organ of sensuous manfestatmi, and thereby of social inter- 
course in a world of sense. And consequently, the restoration 
of a hody^ is essential to the restoration of this sensuous ma- 
nifestation, the renewal of social intercourse in a world of 
sense. Body is not indispensable to mental life — not to con- 
sciousness — not to sympathy with spiritual beings — not to 
recognition, feeling, action, in a spiritual world. But it is 
indispensable to sensuous life and to communication with a 
sensuous world, — ^this sensuous world in which we now are 
living, and which in the last great day, though ransomed from 
the bondage of sin, and of death, and of decay, and of every- 

*■ I say " a body," because we must remember that though the Scriptures 
speak of a " resurrection of the body," they expressly caution us that it will 
not be the body as it was laid in the grave, — the system of flesh and blood 
which crumbles into the dust ; but a body of far nobler elements and qualities, 
to be conceived only by the negatives of our earthly tabernacle — in contrast 
with its imperfections — not a " natural" bodj'- ; not one of " corruption ;" not 
one of " dishonour ;" not one of " weakness ;" but on the contrary a body of 
" incorruption ;" of " glory ;" of " power ;" and in a word, " a spiritual 
body." What indeed is meant by a spiritual body, except in contrast with our 
present natural one, we know not : our conception of it must be entirely nega- 
tive ; we can form no positive notion. But stiU it is " a body," though not 
" the body ;" and a body in such a sense " sensible" as to render it a fit me- 
dium of communication in the regenerated earth. " Even a glorified body" 
(says Professor Miller ; Letter to Dr. Pusey, p. 51) "must still possess those 
inseparable qualities of natural bodies by which they are limited in regard to 
time and place, and become objects of sense ; or the doctrine of a resur- 
rection after death would be reduced to unmeaning sounds." 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 



419 



thing grossly material, shall even then be sensuous still. And 
hence the resurrection of the body is represented in Scripture as 
coincident with the renovation of this world, and with the return 
of the Lord, with his saints, therein to dwell. And the essence 
of this Resurrection is the Restoration of our relation to this 
world, as the dwelling-place of the redeemed — the kingdom of 
the Christ on earth — the new heavens and new earth, when 
" the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and he will dwell 
with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall 
be with them and be their God." Rev. xxi. 3. 

Observe this fact in its several particulars. See in how 
many passages of the word of God this coincidence of the 
resurrection of the body with Christ's second coming, and the 
public manifestation and glory of his saints in a regenerated 
world, is set forth. 

First ; we are told that the time of Christ's second coming 
will be the time of manifestation of his saints. " Ye are now " 
says Paul to the Colossians, " dead ; and your life is hid with 
Christ in God ; " — (you are to count yourselves aliens in this 
present sinful world ; your relation to it destroyed, and you 
yourselves taken up with Christ into the seclusion from it to 
which he has risen ;) — " but when Christ, who is our life, shall 
APPEAR " (or manifest himself ; when he on his second coming 
shall renew his sensible relation to this earth and bring it into 
its promised state of regeneration, as the habitation of his 
Majesty) '' then shall ye also appear" (be manifested, and 
come out into sensible relation with it again) " with him, in 
his glory." Col. iii. 3, 4. Just as the same Apostle tells the 
Thessalonians, " If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring'" (bring- 
back again, when he shall manifest himself) " with him." 
1 Thess. iv. 14. " Then," says the Lord himself, " shall the 



420 THE RESUKRECTION OF THE BODY. 

righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their 
Father." Matt. xiii. 43. 

But next we are told that this manifestation of the saints, 
with their returning Lord, will bring them into renewed con- 
nexion with this lower world. For the " kingdom of Christ," 
which he shall come again to set up, is the reign of God ujpon 
this earth. The " restoration of all things," which he will 
then accomplish, will be the restoration of this lower world 
from sin, corruption, curse, and decay, into " a new heaven and 
a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.'* Whence the 
promises of Christ represent the " kingdom of heaven," the 
time of " consolation," and the " inheriting the earth," as 
identical. " Blessed are the depressed in spirit, for theirs is 
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they 
shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall in- 
herit the earth." Matt. v. 3^ 5. And the expectation of this, 
forms part of the joy of heaven : " Thou hast made us unto 
our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." 
Rev. V. 10. 

Whence^ therefore, in the third place, we are told, that this 
time of the manifestation of the saints with Christ, being thus 
the time of their renewed connexion with this lower world, is 
the time when they shall receive such bodies as shall fit them for 
such connexion ; the time (that is) of the " resurrection of the 
body " which our Creed looks forward to. 

For, while this world is spoken of as regenerated, and re- 
stored, and made new, it is manifestly a sensuous world still ; 
a world, (that is) though not of gross material elements, ex- 
posed to decay and death, yet capable of sensible manifestation 
to sensible natures. And it is such a sensible nature, (though 
no longer material, but refined and purified as a fit organ for 
the glorified spirit,) which is promised to us in that day. " Our 
conversation," says St. Paul, " is in heaven ; from whence 



I 



THE KESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 421 

also we look for the Saviour^ the Lord Jesus Christ ; who 
shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his 
glorious hody^ according to the working whereby he is able 
even to subdue all things unto himself." Phil. iii. 20, 21. 
Observe how, in connexion with the second coming of the 
Deliverer, from heaven, the Apostle looks for the transforma- 
tion of the body into a substance no longer vile, i. e. base, cor- 
rupt, and mortal, by the exertion of the same energy through 
which that Deliverer will then subdue all the fallen creation 
into harmony with his glorious nature. Which intimate con- 
nexion of the resurrection of the body with the setting up of 
Christ's kingdom and the abolishing of sin and death through- 
out the world, is argued out at length, by the same Apostle, in 
the fifteenth chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians ; 
where, having asserted that " As in Adam all die even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order, 
Christ the first-fruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at his 
coming ;" he goes on to declare the extent of the transforma- 
tion which shall then take place ; namely, that what has been 
sown a natural body {i, e. corruptible, mean, and weak, un- 
worthy to be the tabernacle of the regenerate soul), shall then 
be raised a spiritual body (i. e. incorruptible, glorious, power- 
ful, the fit instrument of a glorified spirit) ; so that " as we 
have borne the image of the earthly we shall then bear the 
image of the heavenly." O blessed hope I O glorious con- 
summation I Not confined to our personal advantage^ but 
having reference to our social relations with the worlds of which 
we are part. And therefore a consummation for which that 
world is represented, in that noble burst of prophetic poetry 
in the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, as, with an 
earnest longing, waiting, and crying out I " For the earnest 
expectation of the creature" (the whole creation, all this lower 
world, in all its parts) " waiteth for the manifestation of the sons 



422 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 

of God ;" (their manifestation in that glory of their returning 
Lord to which, in the 17th verse, the Apostle had just referred,) 
" for the creature was made subject to vanity" (to meanness, cor- 
ruption and death) " not willingly, but by reason of him who 
hath subjected the same ; in hope that the creature itself also" 
(even all material nature) " shall be delivered from the bondage 
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
For we know that the whole creation groan eth and travaileth in 
pain together until now." (Pain, indeed, but that of hope ; 
travail, but as that of a woman with child, who looks out for 
the joyful moment when it shall be said, a man is born into 
the world!) "And not only they, but ourselves also, which 
have the first fruits of the Spirit," (in whom the Spirit of 
Christ dwells as the anticipation and pledge of that entire 
redemption which, beginning in the soul, shall finally be ex- 
tended to even our earthly tabernacle*} " even we ourselves 
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the 
redemption of our body'* — its ultimate deliverance into that 
freedom from earthliness, and sin, and death, which shall ren- 
der it fit for the inhabitation of the immortal soul ; and suited 
to the sensible manifestation of that soul in all its glorj^, to 
and with a purified and regenerated world I 

Such seems to me the testimony of the word of God on this 
mysterious subject. A testimony, however, that unavoidably 
transcends our powers of conception. It presents itself to our 
faith, not our comprehension. But for o\xv faith^ how glorious 
is the prospect which it opens out to us ! How full the 
blessedness which it points to I A blessedness, to which the 
immediate happiness of the departed saint shall be but as the 

* See V. 11. "If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead 
dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your 
mortal bodies because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you." 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 423 

drop before the shower. True, that the happiness, as the 
hoHness, of the disembodied spirit will be at once complete ; 
but still it will not be completed ; it will be perfect, but not 
fi7ial ; it will be full for the time then present, but not incapa- 
ble of indefinite enlargement. The glorified saint will find 
nothing lacking, to that stage of his being, and that sphere of his 
action ; but he will not therefore be restrained from that un- 
limited growth, to which, in each new stage of being and new 
sphere of action, he is destined. Even as our great fore- 
runner has already reached the joy set before him, and sat 
down on the right hand of the throne of God ; and yet has 
still " to see his seed, to prolong his days, to find the pleasure 
of the Lord prospering in his hand, to see of the travail of his 
soul in all its infinite consequences, and to be satisfied." Isa. 
liii. 10, 11. Even as he is already entered into his glory, and 
yet shall come again " to he glorified in his saints, and to be 
admired in all them that believe, in that day !''' 2 Thess. i. 10. 
For then shall the mystery of God be finished, as he hath de- 
clared to his servants the prophets ; then shall we triumph with 
wondering adoration in the completion of God's purposes — the 
regeneration of God's world — the setting up of God's kingdom 
— the gathering together in one all things in Christ, both 
which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him — the 
redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his 
glory I 



424 



SECTION IV. 



THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 



In that exquisite composition, the Burial Service of our 
Church, the bereaved Christian is taught, after thanking God 
" that it hath pleased him to deliver his departed brother out 
of the miseries of this sinful world/' to pass onward into 
prayer " that it may please God of his gracious goodness 
shortly to accomplish the number of his elect, and to hasten 
his kingdom ; that we," (says the Church,) "with all them that 
are departed in the true faith of thy holy name, may have 
our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, 
in thy eternal and everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord I" 

And herein does the Church express in prayer that hope, 
which in her Creed she has made an article of confession ; the 
hope, namely, of a resurrection of the body to everlasting life ; 
— to our enjoyment {i. e.) through its instrumentality, of all 
the blessedness which is promised in Christ's kingdom through 
the everlasting age. 

Which intimate connexion of the last sentence of our Creed, 
" the life everlasting," with that immediately preceding it, " the 
resurrection of the body," as forming in fact part of the whole 
idea therein intended to be confessed, is indicated by the omis- 
sion of it in some creeds, because included in the notion 
of the resurrection of the body ; and by its addition in others, 
not as a distinct clause, but as explanatory of the time and 
nature of that resurrection. Thus an ancient writer says, 
" What sort of resurrection of the body ? Not like that of 



THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 425 

Lazarus ; as is taught us hy the addition, ' unto everlasting 

LIFE.'"* 

This clause, therefore, is perfective of that glorious cluster 
of objects, by the presentation of which the Holy Ghost 
excites that Christian Hope which is one of the cardinal 
graces He has to form and nourish in the Christian church. 
Do you look out on the mysterious future, the world before 
you, with an interest expanding in proportion as you take in 
all the relations in which you stand to the world around you? 
Does your Christian Hope require a field of view as wide as 
that of your Christian Charity ? To such an interest and 
sympathy the word of God, and the Apostles' Creed, which is 
the summary of the main truths of that word, respond, by 
disclosing to you all that is needful to be known, not only 
concerning your own continued existence after death ; (which 
is the doctrine of " the Resurrection," generally, as a rising 
from death to life, a permanency of the soul;) — but also con- 
cerning your future relation to the world around you of which 
you form a part ; (which is the doctrine of " the Resurrection 
of the body " specifically ;) — and therefore, along with this, 
concerning the final fortunes of that world itself when Christ 
shall come to redeem it into the kingdom of his glory ; — 
which is the doctrine of " the life everlasting." 

For when we say " I believe in the life everlasting," it 
is the same as saying, I believe in the coming of that glorious 
time, after the final resurrection, (that " age to come " as the 
Scriptures phrase it,) when the kingdom of God shall be set 
up on earth, and Christ shall reign triumphant over a rege- 
nerated world. You learn this, not only from the general 
tenor of those numerous passages which refer to " eternal 

* Quomodo camis resurrectionem ? Ne forte putet aliquis quomodo 
Lazari, ut scias non sic esse, additum est in vitam aternam. De Symb. in 
Pearson. 



426 THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 

life," or, more emphatically, " life ;" and to the " world, or 
age to come;" and to "the kingdom of heaven;" and to 
" the last time ;" and the time of " salvation," and of " re- 
demption ;" all which passages clearly show that by these 
various phrases is indicated one and the same great final 
consummation : but also from the frequent juxtaposition of 
these terms, and their exchange^ in the same continuous pas- 
sage, the one for the other. Thus, for example, in Matthew 
xix. 16, you find a certain ruler asking our Lord, What shall 
I do that I may have eternal life ? " Eternal life " is the 
subject-matter of his question ; and the subject-matter, there- 
fore, of all that Jesus refers to in his answers to this ruler, and 
his conversation with his disciples, onward to the 30th verse. 
But, this term " eternal life," our Lord exchanges, in the 17th 
verse, for the shorter and more emphatic word " life " (" if 
thou wilt enter into life.^ keep the commandments;") and 
again, in the 23d and 24th verses for the equivalent terms 
" the kingdom of heaven," and " the kingdom of God :" 
(" A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven* 
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go 
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into 
the kingdom of God.") And if you would learn more accu- 
rately to what age and condition of the world these terms 
refer, you have this set before you, beyond all mistake, in the 
subsequent promise of Christ to his Apostles in v. 28, 
" Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me," 
(have done that which this young ruler with all his desire for 
" eternal life " has shrunk from doing,) " iti the regetieration, 
when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory ^ ye also 
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel." Or, as St. Luke has expressed the same promise, on 
the same occasion ; " There is no man that hath left house, or 
parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the hingdom of 



THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 427 

God*s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present 
time, and in the world to come life everlasting." Luke 
xviii. 20. 

And just the same sort of interpretation of the terms which 
describe the future blessedness, is afforded us by St. Peter in 
the passage extending from the 3rd to the 13th verse of the 
first chapter of his first Epistle. He begins by blessing God 
for begetting his people to a liveli/ hojyS, through the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus Christ from the dead. And if you ask to what 
this hope has respect, you find, in v. 4, that it is " an 
inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away," now kept in heaven, but in readiness to be revealed, 
or brought out from its storehouse * in " the last time." 
Which time is described as that wherein their faith should 
" be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing 
of Jesus Christ" v. 7; — when they should "rejoice with joy 
unspeakable and full of glory" v. 8 ; — and when they should 
" receive the end" (the reward and consummation) " of their 
faith, even the salvation of their souls." v. 9. " Of which saU 
vation" the Apostle goes on to tell us, v. 10, 11, "the 
prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who pro- 
phesied of the grace " (the mercy and blessedness) " that 
should come unto you; searching what^ or what manner of 
time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when 
it testified beforehand the suff'erings of Christ, and the glory 
which should follow y And concerning which " salvation," or 
" grace," or " glory," St. Peter proceeds, accordingly, to ex- 
hort his readers, v. 1 3, " Wherefore gird up the loins of your 
mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be 
brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 

* See Eplies. i. 3. " God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings " 
(laid up) " in heavenly places in Christ ;" and Col. i. 5, " the hope which is 
laid up for you in lieaven.'''' 



428 THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 

" Everlasting life," then, is the period of the blessedness of 
the everlasting age ; — of the last time ; — of the revelation, or 
bringing forth, of the inheritance now reserved, or kept, for 
us in heaven; — of the attaining the salvation predicted for 
us ; — of the entering into the praise and honour and glory and 
grace which shall be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ. It is the period of the world to come ; — of the king- 
dom of heaven ; — of the kingdom of God ; — of the regenera- 
tion of all things, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne 
of his glory. And therefore to profess our belief in that " ever- 
lasting life," is to proclaim our hope that in that last time, 
that inheritance reserved for us, that salvation predicted to us, 
that grace which is to be brought unto us, that world to come, 
that kingdom of heaven, that regeneration of all things, that 
glory of our Lord, we shall partake of his triumph, — we shall 
sympathise with his redeemed creation — we shall share in the 
fortunes and exult in the glories, of the world of which we 
form a part. 

In this present age, indeed, this blessed consummation can 
be to us an object only of Hope: of that Hope which springs, 
not from calculation of probabilities, but simply from depen- 
dence upon promises — the promises of One who cannot lie. 
" In hope of eternal life,'' says the Apostle, " which God, that 
cannot lie, promised before the world began." Titus i. 2. And 
the nourishment, therefore, of such a hope, is specially a work 
of the Holy Ghost. Not on the basis of earthly reason- 
ing can it be built. Not in the " cloud-land" of this lower 
atmosphere in which imagination delights to expatiate, can its 
foundations be laid. But from the deep serene of the un- 
fathomable sky does its bright beam come forth to us, " as a 
light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, and the 
day star arise in our hearts." 2 Pet. i. 19. "We are saved" 
(says St. Paul, in connexion with this very subject) " by hope." 



THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 429 

Our final salvation — the redemption of our body, and the 
deliverance of the whole creation from the bondage of corrup- 
tion into the glorious liberty of the children of God — is a 
matter that even we, regenerated Christians, who have the 
Spirit as the first-fruits, can only look forward to, wait for, and, 
through the witness of that Spirit, hope for. Now, we are like 
heirs of vast possessions, not yet of age. Now, we are the 
inheritors of Canaan, still on pilgrimage in the wilderness. 
But we know that we shall receive " a kingdom that cannot be 
moved." Heb. xii. 28. We are " made heirs according to 
the hope of eternaL life." Titus iii. 7. And therefore we 
" look for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the 
great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ !" Titus ii. 13. 

And O what an object of hope is this ! " The life ever- 
lasting ! " " The life " as the Nicene Creed expresses it, " of 
the world to come !" Observe what a final perfecting of all 
things is declared by the terms in which this hope is assured to 
us. St. Peter calls it an " inheritance." 1 Pet. i. 4. St. Paul 
denominates it the " inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and 
of God ; " Eph. V. 5. " The inheritance of the saints in light." 
Col. i. 12. The " eternal inheritance." Heb. ix. 15. And in 
all these phrases there is a manifest reference to the promise 
and hope, vouchsafed to the Israelites, of that land of Canaan 
which was the type of the predicted kingdom of God. " He 
hath remembered his covenant for ever," (says the Psalmist,) 
" the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, 
saying. Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of 
your inheritance.'' Ps. cv. 8, 11. "Ye are not as yet come" 
(said Moses to his people) " to the rest and the inheritance, which 
the Lord your God giveth you. But when ye go over Jordan, 
and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to 
inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies 



430 THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 

round about, so that ye dwell in safety ; then there shall be a 
place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name 
to dwell there — and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God." 
Deut. xii. 9 — 11. " Thou shall bring them in," he sings with 
exulting confidence, " and plant them in the mountain of thine 
inheritance ; in the place, O Lord^, which thou hast made for 
thee to dwell in ; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands 
have established. The 'Lord shall reign for ever and ever ! " 
Exod. XV. 17, 18. Now, there is the adumbration, faint indeed, 
but which the Lord himself affords you, of that " rest and 
inheritance" which awaits the tribes of the redeemed in " the 
life everlasting." What Canaan was to Israel that is " the 
kingdom of God" to the whole world; — the consummation of 
a long series of labours ; the repose after conflict ; the peace 
and abundance, and glory of a land flowing with milk and 
honey, after the perils and privations of the wilderness. 

And who can look at this present world— oz^r world — the 
house of our birth ; the cradle of our infancy ; the nursery of 
our childhood ; the school of our varied discipline in youth and 
manhood ; the scene, truly, of our cares, but also of our joys ; 
— who can look round it with a filial interest, and not long to 
share these its future fortunes ? fortunes which we know that 
God has destined for it— fortunes by which he will wind off 
the long and tangled web of his providences, and vindicate his 
goodness, and display his justice, and bring men to adore his 
wisdom. Now, you see things in confusion. Now, the most 
earnest and devout is bafiied w^hen he seeks to explain to him- 
self or others the ways of God. We have a divine tradition 
that all things were made perfect. Yet no one is hardy 
enough to assert that now they are so ; unless it be truly 
some spruce philosopher who has determined to smother facts 
with words. And what then are we to think, and what to 
conjecture, and what to hope, concerning this lost creation of 



THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 



431 



God ? The Bible tells us, that what we know not now we 
shall know hereafter. It reveals to us that a process is going 
on which, like all growth, must assume strange shapes. And 
it points to " the life everlasting," as the time for bringing 
out all things in their full proportion — the time of " restitu- 
tion of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all 
his holy prophets since the world began." Acts iii. 21. 

But observe next, what a final splendour of all things is 
assured to us by the promises of " the life everlasting." 
How does St. Paul paraphrase this term in his epistle to the 
Romans ? " To them " (he says) " who seek for glory ^ and 
honour, and immortality, eternal life." Rom. ii. 7. " Glory, 
and honour ! " all that is splendid and dignified I all that is 
intimated by Ezekiel in that one simple, sublime image, 
" Behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of 
the east, — and the earth shined with his glory ! " Ezek. 
xliii. 2. All that St. John depicts to us when he says, " He 
showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending 
from God out of heaven, having the glory of God ; and her 
light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper 
stone, clear as crystal." Rev. xxi. 10, 11. All that St. Peter 
conveys to us by that single epithet " undefiled " — an inhe- 
ritance not Hke that of Canaan desecrated, notwithstanding its 
relative holiness, by the inhabitants thereof; but truly " the 
holy land," the sacred territory, whose people shall be all 
righteous I " For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and 
for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness 
thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a 
lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteous- 
ness and all kings thy glory /" Isa. Ixii. 1, 2. 

And what then, when we consider, once more, what a final 



432 THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 

permanence of all things is assured to us by that term " the 
life everlasting I" Now, every thing is exposed to change ; 
decay; dissolution. Then," " there shall be no more death !" 
Now, the loveliest things bloom but for a moment, and the 
best things come like shadows and so depart. But then, 
" the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage 
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of 
God I " Then, " the last enemy shall be destroyed, which is 
death I " The inheritance to which St. Peter points the hope 
of the Christian is " incorruptible and that fadeth not away." 
That garden of Eden shall never be destroyed. The flowers 
of that paradise shall never wither. The verdure of that land 
shall never dry up. " He shewed me " says St. John, " a 
pure river of water of life^ clear as crystal, proceeding out of 
the throne of God, and of the Lamb." Rev. xxii. 1 . " And 
it shall come to pass," says Ezekiel, " that every thing that 
liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, 
shall live. — And by the river, upon the bank thereof, on this 
side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf 
shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed ; 
it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because 
their waters the^ issued out of the sanctuary'' Ezek. xlvii. 
9, 12. 

Nor yet does even prophetic imagery such as this convey to 
us all that is included in the phrase " the life everlasting." 
For it intimates not only that nothing shall then fade away ; 
but also that all things shall be going on brightening through 
the endless ages of eternity. " The kingdoms of this world " 
sang the heavenly voices in the Apocalypse, " are become the 
kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign 
for ever and ever ;' (Rev. xi. 15) i. e. not only in that " age 
to come," in which he shall display himself in triumph ; but 
onward through the infinite series of ages upon ages (fiq tovq 



THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 433 

alUJvag riov alojviDv) of which that age shall be but as the first 
term. And what is predicted of the King is equally pre- 
dicted of the followers of that King, and of the region of 
their blessedness. " There shall be no night there ; and they 
need no candle, neither light of the sun ; for the Lord God 
giveth them light ; and the^ shall reign for ever and ever." 
Rev. xxii. 5. Nor is this constantly increasing progression a 
mere prolongation of being ; it is a developement of all those 
glorious objects — those visions of God — those revelations of 
his wisdom, and love, and power, which stimulate to con- 
stantly intensifying wonder, praise, and adoration. " For to 
this end," St. Paul assures us, " God has raised us up together 
with Christ, that through the ages to come " — throughout the 
endless series of successive developements of our being, and 
of this world's blessedness, and of God's perfections, — ''^ he 
might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness 
toward us through Christ Jesus." Eph. ii. 6, 7. 

And here then I pause. I venture not beyond the Scrip- 
ture declarations concerning things which, like the visions of 
the Apostle, when he was caught up to paradise, are truly 
" unspeakable " — such as it is not possible for a man to utter ! 

But this I would inquire of my reader — Do you believe 
these things ? Have you that " lively hope " of which the 
Scriptures speak, of this " everlasting life ?" Alas I too just 
is that scornful saying of the Turks, that " Christians cannot 
believe, themselves, when they talk such glorious things of 
their world to come ; for if they did they would never be so 
afraid to die ! " Does this reproach touch you, my reader ? 
I ask it solemnly, — Does it touch you ? 

And if it does, why so ? Is it peradventure, because you 
have not yet given yourself to Him, through whom alone you 
can become entitled to this everlasting life ? It is they only 

u 



434 



THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 



" which receive abundance of grace, and oi the gift of righteous- 
ness, who shall reign in life by one, even Jesus Christ.'' Rom. 
V. 17. " This is the record, that God hath given to us 
eternal life, and this life is in his Son J' 1 John v. 11. And 
therefore, for all future Hope, as well as present Faith, and 
Charity, we must be, emphatically, " in Christ !" O then to 
close this portion of our meditations on the Creed with a more 
simple, direct, devoted, yielding up ourselves to Christ ! As we 
have come now to the end of this confession of faith, so must 
we come to the end of ever?/ thing in this world ! Here we 
have no continuing city. Our days are as a shadow, and 
there is no abiding. And what, if while this present life 
rushes on so swiftly, you have yet secured no hold upon the 
life to come 9 



THE APOSTLES' CREED. 



PART IV. 



BELIEF OF THE TRUTH. 

M.ix,v6a,viiv TO TgoTi^ov.) 'pr^a.miv to v^ts^ov. — Clemens Alex. 

Character has its roots in truth ; and the ultimate product of truth is 
practice. 

Der Gedankenkreis enthalt den Vorrath dessen, was durch die Stufen des 
Interesse zur Begehrung, und dann durchs Handeln zum WoUen aufsteigen 
kann. Herbart, 

The mind is the storehouse of the character. Therein must be laid up, by 
instruction, that stock of truths, which through the various stages of a per- 
sonal interest in the objects they represent, are warmed into desire for those 
objects ; and then, by practical efforts towards their attainment, become at 
last consolidated into steady purpose and will. 



u 2 



None of the tniths of Revelation hath its end in mere knowledge or specu- 
lation, but in Religion^ that so they may bind and oblige our conduct in some 
way or other. If they be taken into our faith, they involve certain modifica- 
tions of our inward and our outward being. Our self-love, our self-interest, 
our accustomed feeling or accustomed conduct, must give wa}'. There is no 
indulgence, nor compromise, nor alternative ; — all must yield, or nothing is 
gained. It is not the belief of propositions of mathematics, or properties of 
matter ; which may lie in heaps in the mind, and have no effect whatever on 
any of its practical occupations. But it is the belief of our own condition as 
lost or saved ; of God's right over us, and his ways of exercising it ; of our 
duty, and of our destiny. Irving. 



PART IV. 



BELIEF OF THE TRUTH, 



CHAPTER I. 

BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 

We have now completed our meditations on the Suhject- 
matter of the Apostles' Creed. But still there is a topic, 
included in the very term by which we denominate that for- 
mulary, which must not be overlooked. For that word 
" Creed" involves considerations of the highest personal im- 
portance. I need scarcely mention the origin of this title. 
It comes from the first word with which the Latin original 
begins. Just as the Song of the Virgin Mary is called in our 
Prayer-book the " Magnificat," from the first word which 
occurs in the Latin version of it — and the Song of Simeon is 
termed, from a similar cause, the " Nunc Dimittis" — so this 
summary of the articles of our faith is called " The Creed," 
from its first word, " Credo," " I believe." 

But the great question is. What mean we by this declara- 
tion, " Credo," " I believe ? " Is there not here a call to 
inquiry as to the state of mind with which we confess those 
articles of our faith ? Must we not pass on from the objects 
of faith which those several articles have brought before us, 
to the subjective feelings with which the contemplation and 
avowal of those objects must be accompanied? We profess, 



438 BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 

very solemnly, a belief in most momentous truths — what is 

THE NATURE OF THAT BELIEF whlch WC thuS profeSS ? 

Now, in seeking an answer to this question we shall find, I 
think, that the state of mind with which the Christian receives 
and avows the articles of his Creed is that of intelligent Con- 
viction — of hearty Affection — and of practical Submission — 
with reference to the truths which they commemorate. 

Let us consider, in this Chapter, the intelligent Convic- 
tion which we profess, when we declare concerning the articles 
of the Christian faith, " I believe them all.'* 

Now, our convictions concerning anything that we receive 
as true are based on very simple grounds. They rest on two 
great foundations — the one of direct Perception, the other of 
indirect Conclusion. 

By the direct Perception of inward consciousness, we become 
acquainted with facts within us. By that of our outward 
senses, with facts without us. The one called ordinarily, In- 
tuition ; the other. Sensation. But in both these cases the 
result produced is knowledge — positive, personal knowledge 
of those facts. And knowledge, too, in each case equally 
direct and certain. What we find within us by the mental 
eye, we have as much authority for being convinced of, as 
what we see without us by the bodily eye. Our internal in- 
tuitions are as much to be depended on as our external sensa- 
tions. I am as certain by my consciousness that I live — I 
think — I have an intelligent self- determining, self-acting soul, 
as I am certain by my senses, that I see another being alive, 
and exhibiting the marks of an intelligent, self-determining, 
and self-acting soul. I am more certain by my consciousness, 
that I am, than I can be certain by my senses, that anything 



BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 439 

else is. These, then, are the convictions of direct perception, 
whether inward or outward, which constitute knowledge. 

But the other great foundation of our convictions is indirect 
Conclusion. And it is on this that all our certainty, of what- 
ever kind, or from whatever quarter, beyond the limits of 
direct perception, must be based. For immediately that we 
pass the bounds — the narrow bounds — of intuition and sensa- 
tion, we no longer find the facts within us, nor are sensible of 
the facts without us, but we only conclude their existence, with 
more or less of certainty, from those things which we do find, 
and are sensible of. And therefore, throughout all this vast 
field of truth, the result produced in us is not strictly know- 
ledge, but Faith ; faith which, according to the comprehen- 
sive definition of St. Paul, is in the widest sense, and in 
application to both past, and present, and future, " the evidence 
of things not seen;" — that principle of our nature, in de- 
pendence on which we have as much confidence in things that 
are not manifest to the outward, or the inward, sense, as if 
they were so. Faith, I say, (and it is of moment to assure 
ourselves of this, and bear it constantly in mind,) is not a 
ground of religious conviction, peculiarly ; — as if we could say, 
I know mathematical truths — I know historical truths — I know 
moral truths ; — but I have only faith, (which by the very 
mode of speaking is assumed to be something less than know- 
ledge,) in religious truths. But faith, on the contrary, is — 
and it must be — the ground of all our convictions, whether in 
science, or in morals, or in history, or in religion, — all our 
convictions without exception, which have reference to facts 
that lie one hair's breadth over the narrow limits of direct 
perception. What I see and feel I know. What I neither 
see nor feel, be it what it may, I can only believe. 

And thus you see how extensive is the range of things 



440 BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 

through which we are called upon to exercise faith ; how 
various the objects, and classes of objects, to which it must be 
applied ; and how different the kinds, or rather modes of 
exercise, of this faith, according to the way in which those 
objects are brought indirectly to our notice. 

But all these different kinds of faith are reducible to three. 
And my object now is just to show you, that these three 
kinds of faith, by which alone you gain convictions of every 
thing in every art and science, beyond your own perception — 
not in immediate communication with your self — are just 
those w^hich you exercise in succession when you form and 
utter your convictions on the first, and on the second, and on 
the third division of the Apostles' Creed. 

For, First, there is a faith in the deductions of reason ; a 
confidence which the mind reposes, and justly reposes, in the 
conclusions of its own logical faculty, from things presented to 
its perception. If I see an efifect — as, for example, the im- 
pression of a man's foot in the sand, I conclude from that 
efiect to its sufficient cause ; and I am as certain that a man 
has been there, as if that man also I had seen. And just such 
conclusions as these, form the grounds of all the sublime con- 
victions which in science and in philosophy such men as New- 
ton, and Boyle, and Cuvier have arrived at. The mind puts 
faith in its own operations. We repose our confidence on the 
processes of reasoning which in each particular case have 
never failed us ; and we trust them to the end. And this, 
therefore, bears the name of rational conviction. 

Now, just such faith as this, in the deductions of reason, 
forms the ground of those convictions which we express, in 
the first division of our Creed, when we declare " I believe in 
God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." 
No man has seen God at any time. And therefore He 



BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 441 

cannot be an object of knowledge. But every one sees the 
traces, as it were, of God — his footsteps, which he has im- 
pressed upon his works,* And he who ponders on these 
marks, and lets his reason draw out from them the con- 
clusions which they suggest, nay force upon him, is convinced, 
by faith in the conclusions of that reason, that to such a 
Cause as we call God — a Being, intelligent, powerful, bene- 
volent, adequate to the production of all the effects that we 
behold, — we must trace up the marks which rouse our notice, 
and our admiration. " The invisible things of God, even his 
eternal power and godhead, are clearly seen^ being understood 
hy the things that are made" Rom. i. 20. 

But then, there is Secondly, a faith which we are con- 
tinually exercising, (and that, more extensively than even the 
former,) in the depositions of testimony. That is to say ; 
things which we have neither seen, by direct perception, nor 
should have argued out by the exercise of abstract reasoning, 
are made known to us by the reports of others who have seen 
them. And our habit of putting faith in testimony, our readi- 
ness to trust the statements of our fellow-men in proportion as 
we have reason to suppose them neither ignorant nor knavish 
— neither deceitful nor deceived f — this is sufficient ground 

* " I can recognize a man by his footsteps on tlie sand ; and must not the 
constellations, the productions of the earth, and the waves of the sea, convince 
me that there is one God ? " — A Bedouin Arab : in Ency. Met. Art. Be- 
douins. 

+ We cannot too much insist on the limitations included in this qualifying 
clause. Otherwise the unsuspecting will be the prey of every impostor, or 
fanatic, who has address enough to make enormous pretension stand for argu- 
ment. Nothing is more erroneous than the assertion that it is our duty, as it 
is our instinct, to give implicit confidence to the claims of (often a merely self- 
constituted) authority. (Sewell's Christ. Morals, 330.) Our " belief in 
men " must depend on the reasons which those men can give us for yielding such 
belief. " Believe not every spirit," says a better moralist, " but try the spirits 

u5 



442 BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 

for our dependence on that testimony with respect to truths in- 
numerable past, present, and to come. We beheve, not only 
that things are, which we ourselves have not perceived — ^but 
also that they have sprung from causes — and will produce 
results, which we ourselves have not observed. Upon the 

whether they are of God : because many false prophets are gone out into the 
world.'''' 1 John iv. 1. The implicit faith of a child maybe very natural, 
and very engaging ; but is it the duty of a man to remain a child ? to force 
himself back to childhood ? to repress the developement of that one faculty 
which constitutes him specifically a man ? to " reject every doubt as it arises, 
and repel it as he would an unclean or malicious thought ?" (Ibid. 331.) 

For, what is this childlike (say rather childish) credulity, which is so be- 
praised ? Remember it is the quality of a child, only because (and only just 
so long as) he is in the stage of merely animal being ; while that which con- 
stitutes his special humanity is yet undeveloped. We admire this credulity 
under the term childlike, but its true definition is that it is animal-like — that 
it is the instinct of irrational nature — that instinct which leads all animals to 
believe without reflection, and even in opposition to experience, that what 
seems to be, is^ — even as the hen will sit, again and again, upon the same 
deceptive lump of chalk. And is then the virtue of a man, his bounden duty, 
to be represented as consisting mainly in that, which he possessed indeed as a 
child, but only because in that stage of his being he was to that extent, and in 
that particular, an irrational being ! Such a belief is indeed justly called " an 
instinct." But for what reason " rightly disposed hearts should never doubt 
it," let those answer who can tell us of children numberless who are educated 
hy their parents to believe that all religion is a farce — that fraud is their right 
— skill in dishonesty their greatest glory — vice their virtue ! Will you say 
of such : " A child believes all that he hears. Ask him, why ? He can only 
ansv/er that his father has told him. Ask him why he believes his father .? 
He cannot tell ; he feels that it is his father who tells him, and that is enough 
to make him believe. And happy will his lot be, if no evil doubt rises up in 
after life, compelling him to find a reason for ' the faith that is in him ! ! '" 
Why, in what was the life of our blessed Lord consumed but in continual 
labour to make the multitude " doubt " the destructive principles which the 
highest authorities in their church had brought them up in ? to make his dis- 
ciples throw off their implicit faith in the Pharisees, and beware of their per- 
nicious leaven? to " snatch from them" (Ibid. 331) their belief in those blind 
guides that they might walk in the light ? 

No ! It is not childlike credulity, to which we are called, but manly con- 
viction ! And manly conviction is grounded, indeed, on testimony, but that 



BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 443 

Story ^ or testimony from personal observation^* afforded us by 
others, we are sufficiently convinced of the existence of things 
beyond our own observation — of the causes of things, which 
we had not discovered by our own reasoning — of the results of 
things which we have not tested by our own experience. 
And herein consists what is called historical conviction, I 
know the existence of a city called London, because I have 
myself become acquainted with it by direct perception. But I 

testimony taken at its proper worth. Even testimony that we have not inves- 
tigated, or have not the opportunity or ability to investigate, is accepted by us 
not on the mere authority of the testifier, — at least not on his own individual 
pretensions^ or the pretensions of his party — but according to the balance of 
probabilities, (though these perhaps have never been very distinctly stated to 
ourselves,) for his being right. " It is in concurrent testimony that the gene- 
rality of mankind believe in the motions of the earth, and of the heavenly 
bodies, &c. Their belief is not the result of their own observations and cal- 
culations ; yet neitlier is it the result of their implicit reliance on the skill and the 
good faith of any one or more astronomers ; but it rests on the agreement of 
many independent and rival astronomers ; who want neither the ability nor the 
wiU to detect and expose each other's errors. It is on similar grounds that all 
men, except about two or three in a million, believe in the existence and in 
the genuineness of manuscripts of ancient books, such as the Scriptures. It 
is not that they have themselves examined these ; or again (as some represent) 
that they rely implicitly on the good faith of those who profess to have done 
so ; but they rely on the concurrent and uncontradicted testimony of all who 
have made the examination ; both unbelievers and believers of various hostile 
sects ; any one of whom would be sure to seize any opportunity to expose the 
forgeries or errors of his opponents. This observation is the more important, 
because many persons are Uable to be startled and dismayed on its being 
pointed out to them that they have been believing something — as they are led 
to suppose — on very insufficient reasons ; when the truth is, perhaps, that they 
have been misstating their reasons." — Archbishop Whately ; Rhetoric, I. 
ii. 4. 

* For a " Story," or " History," is, by the force of its etymology, a testi- 
mony fro7n personal observation — a narrative of facts that we have seen and 
observed, and investigated for ourselves, 'lirro^ilv is to take a journey for the 
purpose of observation : and hence Iffro^iai are the notes of what, in such a jour- 
ney, we have observed — the " personal narrative," in modern phrase, of a 
traveller. 



444 BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 

believe the existence of Rome, or of Calcutta, or of Canton^ on 
the depositions of those who have themselves been there. 
And just similarly, I know the existence, and the doings, and 
the character, of my personal friends, because I have seen 
them living and acting. I believe the existence of a Luther, 
of a Socrates, of all historical personages, because I have suf- 
ficient testimony^ brought down to me from age to age, from 
those who stood to them in the same relation of personal 
friends. And who will say that his convictions have not as 
good a ground in the case of the unseen city as of the seen 
one ; of the man of a former age, as of the present one ? 
Who will contend that we are to doubt the existence of all 
the world but that little corner of it on which we stand? 
Who is not ready to go out to a distant colony with as sure a 
conviction of finding such a place at the end of his voyage, 
because his fellow-men have deposed to their acquaintance 
with that place, as that with which he sets out for his well- 
known country-seat ? " There is no science taught "- says 
Bishop Pearson, " without such original belief. There are no 
letters learnt without preceding faith. There is no justice 
executed, no commerce maintained, no business prosecuted, 
without this. All secular affairs are transacted, all great 
achievements are attempted, all hopes, desires, and inclina- 
tions are preserved, by ^Mx^ faith grounded on the testimony of 
man''' 

But, just on such a ground, so valid, (and felt to be so 
valid) rest all those truths which we avow in the second divi- 
sion of our Creed, when we declare, " I believe in Jesus 
Christ, God's only Son, our Lord ;" and go on to narrate the 
historical circumstances of his life, and death, and resurrec- 
tion, and ascent into heaven. We take them all upon the 
testimony of those who could not be deceived upon these facts, 
for they were eye-witnesses and personal friends of him to 



BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 445 

whom they testify ; nor could they have intended to deceive^ 
for they were holy men. " That which we have heard " says 
one of them, " which we have seen with our eyes, which we 
have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of 
life ; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." 
1 John i. 1, 3. " For we have not followed cunningly de- 
vised fables " says another, " when we made known unto you 
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye- 
witnesses of his majesty." 2 Peter i. 16. 

But then you will find that, in addition to that Rational 
belief which rests on the deductions of the understanding — 
and that Historical belief which is based on the depositions of 
testimony — there is a third kind which reposes on the Asser- 
tions of Authority. There are things which we have not seen 
ourselves — nor found out for ourselves — neither have others 
seen them ; — hut they have found them out. Their mental eye 
has penetrated further than that of other men ; their reason 
has risen up higher into the unseen world ; their towering 
mind has been illumined as with a light from heaven, while on 
the world beneath them still were resting the shadows of 
night. And on the authority of these Seers of human kind — 
these Out-lookers from the posts of observation to which they 
have been raised ; — from our confidence in their superior wis- 
dom, insight, reach of thought, we are ready to receive, on their 
assertion — their bare assertion — truths, which neither should 
we have discerned for ourselves, nor, till in simple faith we 
receive them and go on to act upon them, can we even verify 
for ourselves.* Men are continually doing this. All that 
we know of our own limited understanding as compared with 

* Neque enim qusero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam. Nam 
qui non crediderit, non experietur, et qui expertus non fuerit, non intelliget. 

— Anselm. 



446 BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 

that of other men, impels to this. All that we feel of re- 
verence (and we rightly feel it) for the Sages of our species 
authorizes this. The very ground of subsequent knowledge 
is such an anticipative faith. The very first condition of all 
instruction is a preliminary confidence in the assertions, rest- 
ing on a reverence for the authority, of the instructor. And 
herein consists that third kind of belief, which is rightly 
termed a moral conviction — an assurance derived from our 
knowledge of the character, our reverence for the wisdom, our 
confidence in the authority of one superior to us, that his 
assertions are deserving of our fullest acceptance. 

And just of this moral character are those convictions which 
we avow in the third division of our Creed, when we profess 
to believe in the Holy Ghost and in all the particulars of that 
saving work which he carries on in the Christian church. It 
is not by deductions of Reason — it is not by depositions of 
Testimony — but it is by the Assertions of Authority/ that we are 
assured of the Christian truths which relate to the mysterious 
present, and the unfathomable future — the unseen world which 
lies above us, and around us, and before us. And this too an 
Authority which claims our confidence, not as merely human ; 
— not as grounded on profundity of wisdom — or loftiness of 
imagination — or sagacity of conjecture; — but as having been 
proved to us, by many and infallible external proofs, divine : 
the authority which belongs to men taught of God, and giving 
testimony both by their miraculous endowments, and their 
holy characters, that so they have been taught : the authority, 
above all, of Him who by sufficient historical testimony is 
proved to be the Son of God, and to speak the words of God. 
" The Gospel which was preached of me" says Paul, " is not 
after man; for I neither received it of man, neither was I 
taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Gal. i. 11, 12. 
" The words that I speak unto you," says the holy Jesus, " I 



BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 447 

speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he 
doeth the works." John xiv. 10. 

Such then are the grounds on which repose that intelligent 
conviction which by the first words of our Creed we publicly 
profess — grounds, be it remembered, which form the only sup- 
port for all that we believe and act upon in our every day life. 
All the combined force of a rational — an historical — a moral 
conviction, authorizes and obliges us to avow with fullest con- 
fidence, " I believe" the several Articles of the Christian 
faith. 

And let us then observe, first. What a personal thing is 
faith ! The Creed, you will remember, is enunciated, not as 
the opinion of another, but as the firm conviction of our indi- 
vidual mind. It is expressed, not even in the first person 
plural, though to be recited by multitudes together, but in the 
first person singular, each one speaking of himself, and for 
himself, to show the solemn personal interest — the awful per- 
sonal responsibility — which attaches to our faith. Men talk 
of faith as if it were a something to come upon us by some 
magical influence, rather than to be exercised hy us, with ra- 
tional deliberation; as if it so came by nature, or were so 
infused by grace, as to constitute no personal act of our own 
mind and heart, for which we must give account ; when, really, 
it is one of the most essentially personal works that we can 
possibly exercise — more personal, if possible, than our outward 
doings and sayings, because itself the source and regulator of 
those outward doings and sayings; and involving more im- 
portant consequences than any word or deed, because the 
whole character and direction of our words and deeds, will be 
regulated by the notions we take up, the views we entertain, 
the convictions which consolidate themselves within our 
minds, and the consequent purposes we form and execute in 



448 BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 

our daily life. Whether I shall make a fortune by some un- 
dertaking proposed to me, or lose the golden opportunity, must 
depend on my belief in that undertaking : and my belief in 
that undertaking must depend on the amount of inquiry I 
have made into it — the information I have gained concerning 
it — the conclusions I have formed from that information — the 
confidence I have thence attained in the knowledge, wisdom, 
and good faith of those who propose to me that undertaking. 
So again, whether I shall ruin myself by rebellion, or raise 
myself by loyalty, must depend on my helief in the power of a 
sovereign whom I may never have seen — of laws which I may 
never have read — of judges whose very names I may never 
have heard of — of a whole system of government, and punish- 
ment, and reward, whose authority I know hitherto only by 
evidence and in no way by experience. And can we then say 
a man is no more accountable for his faith than for the colour 
of his skin ? Is there no weal or woe dependent on the beliefs 
that he indulges or rejects? Test by experiment the sapient 
assertion. Persuade yourself for a moment that fire will not 
burn you ; and thrust your hand into the flame. Will no ac- 
count be taken? — i. e. will no practical consequences follow 
from the ignorance, or the obstinacy, or the presumption, 
which produced that act ? Make, I repeat, the trial,, in this 
particular case, with what impunity you can trifle with the 
evidence of analogy, and of testimony, and of authority, as to 
your particular danger from that particular source. Will any 
one be mad enough to run the risk? And will you then be 
mad enough to run a similar risk with reference to your im- 
mortal soul? Will you trifle with your spiritual interests as 
you would not with the slightest feelings of your flesh ? Will 
you, from the pride of self-will, or from the delusions of 
sophistry, or from the heedlessness of presumption, neglect 
the conclusions of human reason — go counter to the deposi- 



BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 449 

tions of historical testimony — despise the assertions of divine 
authority — and by an ignorant doubting of the best attested 
truths concerning God your Father — Christ your Saviour — 
the Holy Ghost your Sanctifier, thrust your soul into the fire 
of hell ? O the unspeakable awfulness of that one thought — 
your soul — your Self — your individual personality ; which Self, 
and which alone, consents to, or rejects, asserts or denies, be- 
lieves or doubts, the articles of the Christian faith ! 

And hence see, secondly, what a practical thing is faith. 
It leads to corresponding action. It decides the mind within, 
and thus it influences the conduct without. For the mind is 
the man. And as the man so will be his deeds. In propor- 
tion to the strength of our convictions upon any subject; to 
the frequency with which they are reproduced before the con- 
sciousness ; to the vividness with which they breathe and burn 
within us ; will be the complexion of our character, and the 
tenor of our life. It was a taunt of the Emperor Julian, to 
the Christians whom he had deserted, " ' I believe ' is the 
sum of all your wisdom ! " But in that taunt he spoke a 
glorious truth. The very truth which St. Paul proclaimed 
when he declared " The life that I live in the flesh I live by 
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself 
for me." Reader, do you find your faith thus practical? Is 
it to you all your wisdom, all your life ? When you say, " I 
believe in God the Father," do you therefore reverence Him, 
love Him, obey Him ? When you say, " I believe in God the 
Son," do you therefore trust in Him as your Saviour, yield 
yourself to him as your King ? And when you say, " I be- 
lieve in God the Holy Ghost," do you therefore cherish His 
holy inspirations, follow his heavenly impulses, walk in the 
Spirit, and cultivate the integrity^, the love, the hope, the joy, 
the peace, the longsuiFering, the gentleness, the goodness, the 
meekness, the temperance, which are the fruits of the Spirit ? 



450 BELIEF, AN INTELLIGENT CONVICTION OF TRUTH. 

It is one thing to profess, " I believe." It is another thing to 
have the belief we profess I For he who has that belief has 
therewith all those good works by which (as our Article de- 
clares) " a lively faith is as evidently known as a tree dis- 
cerned by its fruit." 



451 



CHAPTER II. 

BELIEF, AN HEARTY AFFECTION FOR TRUTH. 

That is an awful saying of our blessed Lord concerning the 
very first work of the Holy Ghost, " He shall convince the 
world of sin, because they believe not in me.'' John xvi. 9. 
How different then is the notion which our Lord must have 
formed, of belief, and of the responsibility of men for their 
beliefs, from that in which the mass of worldly men indulge I 
Jesus looks on faith, most evidently, as an act of the will, and 
not a mere process of the understanding — as something in 
which our moral nature, not merely our intellectual, is con- 
cerned — as something, therefore, with reference to which we 
must give account, and for our want of which we must stand 
guilty and condemned before the bar of God. It is — and we 
have for this the divine authority of the Son of God — it is a 
sin not to believe in him I 

Now, why is this ? Because the faith of which the Scrip- 
tures speak includes in it the affections of the heart. It cannot 
but do so on account of the objects with which it is conversant. 
There may indeed be a purely speculative belief; but then, 
only with reference to objects which do not affect — and only 
so long as they do not affect — our personal welfare. For ex- 
ample — that two and two make four, appears as perfectly ab- 
stract a proposition, — which we can have no sort of interest in 
affirming or denying, and which therefore we receive on purely 
intellectual grounds, — as any that can be named. Yet even 



452 BELIEF, AN HEARTY AFFECTION FOR TRUTH. 

this, immediately that it comes to be applied to something in 
which we are concerned, (to the reckoning up, or the disposal, 
of our possessions, for example,) comes down into the region 
of the personal ; and in many supposable cases would be ex- 
posed to challenge, or to being tampered with, through the 
influence of our feelings, if there were any possible room for 
questioning or confusing it. 

Much more, therefore, are all those facts and truths which 
relate directly to our personal interest, exposed to all the ques- 
tioning, and all the various modifications of acceptance, which 
the action on them of our personal feelings, our tastes and 
habits, our hopes and fears, our preferences and purposes, can 
produce. The external evidence for those facts or truths may 
remain untouched, and yet the internal persuasion of their cer- 
tainty may vary with a vast indefiniteness, not only in different 
minds, but in the same mind, in its different moods. The 
object that we look at may be fixed. But the atmosphere 
through which we look at it is exposed to all the variations of 
density, all the vicissitudes of cloud and clearness, dimness and 
distinctness, of our subjective being. 

For, in the first place, our very attention to the truths of 
Christianity depends on the disposition of our heart towards 
them. 

Those truths are revealed with reference to a particular 
condition of mankind, for which condition they proclaim the 
remedy provided by God. But, only as we are conscious 
(however dimly) of being in this condition, shall we listen 
with any attention to the proclamation of the remedy for it. 
Amidst the multitudinous objects which are continually solicit- 
ing our regard, the mind has no leisure — it has no inclination 
— to occupy itself with any but such as respond, in some way, 
to its feelings. " They that are whole need not a physician, 



BELIEF, AN HEARTY AFFECTION FOR TRUTH. 453 

but they that are sick." And they who think themselves to 
be whole, may have commended to them remedies innumera- 
ble, with all persuasiveness of argument, and yet can really 
give no attention to, because they take no interest in, the to- 
pic pressed upon them. It may be all very true ! the infor- 
mation may be very useful to them some day or other I Pos- 
sibly their friends are right ! But really, these are dreams 
of valetudinarians, which they have not time to enter into ! 

But still more is our Attention to religious truth withheld, 
when the personal interest is, not merely not directed towards 
it, but engaged against it. And no one can recollect for a mo- 
ment the main topics of the Creed, without perceiving that 
there can be no neutrality in the human heart, concerning 
them; — that where the interest is not engaged upon their side, 
it must be necessarily against them ; — that what is not sought 
for as a needful remedy for spiritual anxiety, must be repelled 
as an intrusion on our peace. God, as the all- searching In- 
spector, Ruler, Judge : Christ, as the holy Lord to whom we 
have been dedicated by a solemn vow : the Holy Spirit as the 
Guardian and Enforcer of the natural conscience in us, yea 
and the avenger of its injuries : — all these topics are not simply 
tasteless, they are unpalatable — they are bitter — to the worldly 
heart. And that which men know, by a sort of instinct of 
aversion, to be unpalatable, they will not voluntarily partake 
of. "As the mouth tasteth meat" says Job, "so the ear trieth 
words. Men choose to themselves judgment; they know 
among themselves what is good." There is a quick anticipa- 
tion of what will suit their state of heart, and what will not ; of 
what will gratify, and what will disgust, their mental palate. 
And you see this in the world. You see with what dexterity, 
what steadiness, what success, men contrive to hear about reli- 
gion, talk about religion, and yet keep off from all actual con- 
tact with religion ; all personal attention to it ; all application 



454 BELIEF, AN HEARTY AFFECTION FOR TRUTH. 

of it to their own condition ; and consequently every thing that 
deserves the name of faith in its revelations. " What are you 
reading now ? " asked some one of a person whom I knew. 
" Why, I am reading the Bible ;" (was the answer) " but only, 
as an historical work — not as the Bible, you know ! " O too 
just exclamation of the Prophet ; " To whom shall I speak, and 
give warning that they may hear ? Behold, their ear is uncir- 
cumcised, and they cannot hearken. Behold, the w^ord of the 
Lord is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it ! " 

But you will find, in the second place, that the understand- 
ing of the truths of Christianity, depends upon the state of our 
affections towards them. For even suppose the words attended 
to, our understanding of those words, in all subjects of aesthetic 
apprehension, whether those of taste, of morals,, or of piety, 
will be affected by the state of our personal sensibility. Words 
are only signs— the signs of things ; and therefore they can be 
understood by us, (taken in their full force and import,) only 
in proportion as we are acquainted with the things, or at least 
the class of things, of which they are the signs. Talk to a 
blind man about colours ; write to a deaf man about sounds ; 
expatiate before a dull hard man about the infinite feelings of 
the taste and the imagination ; and you find at once that not 
the plainest words can convey your meaning, because there is 
no responsiveness, no receptivity, no sense, either physical or 
mental, for the things of which those words are but the signs.* 

* " Every man understands by his affections more than by his reason ; and 
when the wolf in the fable went to school to learn to speU, whatever letters 
were told him, he could never make anything of them but ' agnus ;' he thought 
of nothing but his belly : and if a man be very hungry you must give him 
meat before you give him counsel. A mart's mind must be like your proposition, 
before it can be entertained ; for whatever you put into a man, it wiU smell of 
the vessel ; it is a man's mind that gives the emphasis and makes the argu- 
ment to prevail." — Bishop Taylor. 



BELIEF, AN HEARTY AFFECTION FOR TRUTH. 455 

And just so is it with moral and religious truth, and all the 
touching words of God upon those subjects which concern the 
yearnings and anticipations, the hopes and fears, the tastes and 
the necessities, of the inner man. God may speak, but men 
do not hear. He may set objects before them, but they do not 
see. He may enunciate truths which are fitted to stir up the 
noblest emotions of the soul, but they remain unmoved. The 
prophet Isaiah was warned of this, at the very moment when 
he was commissioned by God to proclaim such truths. " Go 
and tell this people^, Hear ye indeed, but understand not ; and 
see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this peo- 
ple fat;" (in Scripture, the occasion of a thing is often repre- 
sented as the cause of it : a person is said to make that, which 
he only makes appare^it, is the occasion of bringing forth to 
light,) " and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes ; lest 
they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and 
convert, and be healed." Isa. vi. 9, 10. 

Nor is it only by this inward susceptibility that one man's 
understanding of truth will differ from another's ; but the under- 
standing of the same man will be different, at different periods of 
his moral history, in different states of heart. That which the 
bosom friends of Jesus, whom he had taken so much pains to 
instruct, could not at one time comprehend, he promises shall 
be at last made clear to them. And how ? Not by the pre- 
senting, by an additional outward revelation, new truths before 
their eyes ; new words ; new proofs ; new illustrations ; but by 
the purging of those eyes by an inward influence to enable them 
to look out clearly on the truths, the words, the proofs, the illus- 
trations, which he had already set before them, but they un- 
derstood them not. " I have many things to say unto you, 
but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit 
of truth, is come," (which Spirit, remember, was to take up his 
residence in the inward man, to influence the sentiments and 



456 BELIEF;, AN HEARTY AFFECTION FOR TRUTH. 

tastes and feelings of the hearty) " he will guide you into all 
truth.; for he shall not speak of himself;" (with some new re- 
velation) " but whatsoever he shall hear," (/. e. from me, in 
whose name he comes,) " that shall he speak." John xvi. 13. 
The work of the Spirit was not to communicate truths abso- 
lutely new, but to open the understanding, by disposing the 
heart, to the perception of truths which already lay wrapped 
up in their Master's personal instructions ; and the force, and 
compass, and application of which to each emergency as it 
arose, should by the Spirit's inward light be manifested to 
them. " He shall teach you all things " — how ? By " bring- 
ing all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said 
unto you." John xiv. 26. O then, to seek this inward teach- 
ing as essential to a hearty belief ! O to bow our knees con- 
tinually to that Divine Illuminator, that " Spirit of wisdom 
and revelation in the knowledge of Christ," who alone can 
" enlighten the eyes of our understanding, that we may know 
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the 
glory of his inheritance in the saints !" 

" So mucli the rather Thou, celestial Light, 
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers 
Irradiate ; there plant eyes ; all mist from thence 
Purge and disperse ; that we may see and tell 
Of things invisible to mortal sight ! " 

But there is still another element of genuine belief, of even 
greater importance ; the presence of which depends especially 
on the state of the affections towards the truths presented to 
us. There is the just appreciation of those truths ; not 
merely our Attention to them, and our Understanding of them, 
but our forming a due estimate, entertaining a just sense, of 
their surpassing worth, their dignity, their divinity. You may 
draw a man's attention to a subject ; you may explain to him, 
theoretically, that subject — and yet he may have no just 



BELIEF, AN HEARTY AFFECTION FOR TRUTH. 457 

appreciation of that subject ; no care about it ; no delight in it ; 
no passion for it. Take music, for example. A man may- 
have been taught its theory ; and drilled into a mechanical 
facility, nay dexterity, in its execution ; and yet, if he have no 
heart for music — if there be not music in his soul — he will 
never make a true musician. And so with painting. And so 
with poetry. And so, too, with the moral feelings ; of truth, 
of honour, of dignity, of friendship, of affection. The cha- 
racters of whom we read in history, the persons whom we 
meet with in society, the ideals painted out to us in poetry, 
— all are appreciated, entered into, felt, most differently, by 
different minds, according to the specific sensibility of those 
minds. None but the high-minded glows at the beholding 
of heroic deeds. None but the truthful is fired with en- 
thusiasm for the friends of truth. None but the unselfish can 
appreciate the majesty of self-sacrifice. And so, too, none hut 
the devout, can feel the sublimity of devoutness — none but the 
holy, the purity of holiness — none but the spiritually minded, 
the dignity of spiritual mindedness. And see how this tells 
on the belief — the hearty reception and embracing — of the 
revelations commemorated in our Creed. For those revela- 
tions, let us remember, are revelations not of truths merely ; 
abstract doctrines; — but oi persons, — living persons, — cha- 
racters ; — God the Father, as the Being in whom shines forth 
all wisdom, and all goodness, and all power ; — God the Son, 
who is the impersonation of compassion and forbearance ; not 
passing by, but honouring, the demands of the severest 
sanctity ; — God the Holy Ghost, who is the exalted, the 
unearthly, the spiritual, the heavenly One. And how then 
can we feel the worth of characters like these, so as to exercise 
towards them that belief, which includes within it reverence, 
and love, and trust, and gratitude, and admiration, and hope, 
but in proportion as the seeds of those excellencies which excite 

X 



458 BELIEF, AN HEARTY AFFECTION FOR TRUTH. 

such feelings, have become implanted, — are in some degree 
unfolded,— in ourselves ? There can be confidence, only where 
there is congruity. There can be afi*ection, only where there 
is similarity. There can be a right appreciation of another m 
any of his qualities, only where there is a corresponding feeling 
with that other. " How can ye believe," says Jesus to the 
Pharisees, " which receive honour one of another, and seek 
not the honour which cometh from God only ? " It is impos- 
sible for a worldly mind to appreciate an unworldly truth. It 
is impossible for him whose heart is strung and pitched only 
to the sounds of earth, to give forth any resonance to the 
voice of one unearthly : — 

" There is in souls a sympathy with sounds, 
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleas'd. 
Some chord in unison with what we hear 
Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies." 



459 



CHAPTER III. 

BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 

God has revealed to us the mystery of his truth, declares 
St. Paul, " for the obedience of faith." Rom. xvi. 26. This 
is the ultimate object of all the manifestations of God to man. 
On this one point He designs all the writings of his prophets, 
and the preaching of his messengers to bear. All are vouch- 
safed for the production, in those to whom they come, of a 
submission and surrender of the will to God, in correspond- 
ence with the truths revealed. 

When, therefore, we say, " I believe" the Articles of the 
Christian faith, we avow, not simply our intelligent Conviction 
of these truths, and our hearty Affection towards them, but 
moreover our practical submission to them ; — our recogni- 
tion, of the relation in which the very fact of their communica- 
tion places us with God ; and our determination to walk, in 
daily life, agreeably to the same. 

Consider, then, the Relation, and the corresponding Obli- 
gations, to God, which we recognize, by our avowal of Belief 
in the three grand divisions of the Articles of the Christian 
faith. 

There is indeed a relation in which we stand to God ante- 
cedent to that into which we are brought by the knowledge of 
specifically Christian truth. The existence, the majesty, the 
supremacy of that Being whose special relation to us Chris- 
tianity clears up, and whose special disposition towards us it 



460 BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 

reveals, — these are already known to us (or knowable) by the 
testimony both of nature, and of events. We cannot open 
our eyes but we behold around us works of wisdom and power 
and benevolence, which proclaim an intelligent workmaster. 
We cannot exercise our reason on the history of our species 
without discovering proof of His superintendence, of His 
education, of His creature, man. And in this way, we are led 
to recognize a relation in which all beings, — in which espe- 
cially we ourselves, — stand to this first and best, as creatures 
towards a Creator — dependents towards a Benefactor — sub- 
jects towards a Sovereign Ruler. The simple belief in God 
as our Supreme moral Governor, involves in it an obedience, 
springing out of such belief, to every, the slightest, indication 
of his will. Even in this limited revelation — even with refer- 
ence to such purely rational, or traditional, convictions, — there 
cannot be a real faith, not followed by a corresponding work. 
To believe must be to act according to our belief. Whence 
the old definitions of religion as that state of mind which 
knowing God strives to please him. And just as when " the 
fool says in his heart, there is no God," the next immediate 
testimony concerning such is, " they are corrupt, they have 
done abominable works;" (Ps. xiv. 1,) so, we cannot concede 
the existence of a state of mind other than that of " the fool," 
(the practical atheist,) wherever the acknowledgment of God 
leads not to the surrender to him of the reverence, the homage, 
the obedience, which such a relation demands. 

But when we come on to the revelations of Christ, how 
enlarged, how altogether new, are the relations which open 
out upon us, as existing between this awful Being and our- 
selves I It is not the God of nature, merely, who is dis- 
closed to us in the Articles of the Christian faith; it is this 
God, in that character in which he has revealed himself by his 
only begotten Son. It is God, not as our Creator simply, but 



BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 461 

as our Father — our Redeemer — our Sanctifier. It is God in 
such a form, and in such relations to us, as are nowhere else 
made known — as from no other source can be discovered. 
How strongly is this declared in Holy Writ. " No one hath 
seen God at any time ;" has gained an adequate conception of 
his character ; " the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of 
the Father, he only hath declared him" or made him clearly 
known. John i. 1 8. " As no man knoweth the Son but the 
Father ; so neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, 
and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him.'' Matt. xi. 27. 
For, the God whom the Gospel reveals to us, is One who 
stands related not merely to our instinctive sense of depend- 
ence upon unseen power (the first element of all religion) ; but 
also to our moral feeling of Affinity to that power as his oJ3f- 
spring — of Guilt before him as his undutiful offspring — of 
Corruption as his degenerate offspring. According to the 
enlargement of our views of our own personal nature, state, 
and character, so do we need, and so is there vouchsafed to 
usj the revelation of some new feature of the character of God 
as bearing relation to those views. And each new feature of 
God's character^ in such relation to us, involves in it the de- 
mand, and binds upon us the obligation, for a correlative prac- 
tical submission to Him in that relation. 

Do you meditate upon your rational, spiritual, nature, — so 
mysterious in its workings, powers, infinite imaginings, — till 
you are filled with a conviction (not a proud, but awe-in- 
spiring one) of your essential difference from all other beings 
on the face of the earth ; of your possessing, in your very 
capacity to know God, a title and a call to enter into commu- 
nion with Him, as His child, the image of his perfections, and 
the heir of his immortality ? Then, of such faint surmises — 
such imaginations trembling at their own audacity — there is 

X 3 



462 BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 

revealed to you in the Gospel of Christ, upon divine authority, 
the clear and settled confirmation ; when you are taught to 
call on God^ with child-like reverence and confidence, as your 
Father. 

And what then is the duty which you owe to One revealed 
to you under such a character and relation ? What the prac- 
tical submission of the will, which such a truth demands ? Is 
it merely reverence, to which you are called ? Is it de- 
pendence? Is it absolute obedience? Is it not something 
more than all these ? including all these ? sanctifying and en- 
nobling all these ? and breathing over them the fragrance of 
a child-like piety and devotedness ? If God stands thus in 
close relation to us, then are we called to imitate him, in our 
mind and disposition and character ; " Be ye followers of 
God " says the Apostle, — imitators of his holiness — " as dear 
children." "^ Be ye perfect," says our Lord ; — aim at moral 
excellence, at spiritual purity in all its compass and complete- 
ness — " even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 

And are we not called moreover to hold communion with a 
God so manifested to us, as our Father? — to raise our spirits 
to the contemplation of Him who is, like us, spirit ? — to 
" speak with God" (amazing privilege I) " as a man speaketh 
with his friend ;" — till, like the favoured Moses, our very 
countenance become resplendent with a radiance that we know 
not of? Yes, this is truly our duty, as it is our privilege ; for 
thus saith the Son of God : " The true worshippers shall 
worship the Father in spirit and in truth ; for the Father 
seeketh such to worship him.'' 

Nor is a filial zeal for God less incumbent on us than imita- 
tion of his character, and communion with his Spirit. All 
that Jesus, The Son of God, was by eminence, and so as none 
can reach to ; that we, the sons of God, are to become, in our 
poor measure, each one in his sphere. And what was the 



BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 463 

principle of His existence ? " My meat is, to do the will of 
him that sent me ; and to finish his work." — " For I came down 
from heaven, not do my own will, but the will of him that 
sent me." And what was the accompaniment in his con- 
sciousness, of such entire surrender of his will ? " He that 
sent me is with me ; the Father hath not left me alone ; 
for I do always those things that please him." And what the 
blessed hope to which this self- surrender led ? " Father, I 
have glorified thee on the earth. Glorify me now with thine 
own self!" O to lose our own will, more and more, in 
God's will I to consecrate our powers to his service ! to ad- 
vance his kingdom ! to glorify his name ! and " as he that 
hath called us is holy, so to be holy in all manner of conver- 
sation ; because it is written. Be ye holy, for I am holy I" 

Then again ; does the very grandeur of such an assurance 
of your proper nature only make more startling to you, by the 
force of contrast, your convictions of your actual degradation 
and unworthiness, and press upon you the alarming certainty 
that from this nature you have fallen? O how deeply fallen ! 
Do you feel, the more you are conscious that you were 
formed to be God's child, the shame, the remorse, the self- 
upbraiding, and the sense of gross undutifulness, which rushed 
upon the prodigal, in the parable, when he " came to himself," 
and cried " I have sinned against heaven, and before my 
Father, and am no more worthy to be called his son ? " And, 
therefore, does the very loftiness of your elevation as a spi- 
ritual being make more dreadful to you the depth of your de- 
gradation as a fallen being ? Then, how essential to you, in 
such a view of yourself, is some corresponding revelation of 
God's character and relation to you — of his feelings towards 
you — of his doings for you — such as shall meet the gloomy 
anticipations of a self-abhorrent, self-condemning spirit I And 



464 BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 

what find you, in your Creed, but such a corresponding reve- 
lation, in the record it preserves to you of " God the Son, 
redeeming you and all mankind I" — of that same God who is 
your Father, but still most righteously held back by his essen- 
tial holiness and justice, from recognizing you, in your state of 
alienation, as his child ; — descending nevertheless, in the per- 
son of his First-begotten, to recal you to himself; and coming 
towards every penitent (even as that tender parent in the 
parable) to meet you in your wretchedness, and acknowledge 
you, notwithstanding your past unworthiness, and " fall upon 
your neck and kiss you ! " " God was in Christ reconciling 
the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto 
them ! " 

And what is the practical submission to such a manifesta- 
tion of God, which will be wrought in the will of him who 
thoroughly believes it ? Will it not bring him to a hearty 
dosing with the grace thus revealed to him ? Even as St. 
Paul, immediately on commemorating this stupendous fact 
that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, 
turns round on the Corinthians with the practical exhortation, 
" We therefore as ambassadors for Christ, pray you to he re- 
conciled to God /" Even as he adds with solemn admonition, 
" We then, as workers together with him, beseech you that 
ye receive not the grace of God in vain /" Of all the duties 
that we can owe to God, this of yielding to his mercy is the 
greatest. Of all the responsibilities into which we can be 
brought, this which we owe to the Redeeming Son of God is 
the most awful ! Of all the sins which can enhance our guilt, 
and acuminate our final wretchedness, this of turning away 
from him that speaketh from heaven is the most tremendous ! 
" If the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every trans- 
gression and disobedience received its just recompense of 



BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 465 

reward^ how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, 
which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord ?" 

Nor are we less called by such a manifestation to an adoring 
gratitude for the grace thus vouchsafed to us. Gratitude is 
the offspring of that sense of equity and retributive justice 
which is uneasy at the perception of disproportion — which is 
impatient till an equivalent return— or at the least some due 
acknowledgment of the justice of such return — is rendered for 
whatever we experience ; and till the balance of the feelings, 
which has become unsettled by the casting some new thought 
into the mind, begins at least to tremble towards its point of 
rest. It is a re-action of the heart. It is the elastic rebound of 
our nature to the impression which has been made upon it — 
its rising up and resiliating towards the hand by which it has 
been touched. And its general formula of utterance, there- 
fore, is that of the impatient Psalmist, " What shall I render 
to the Lord for all the benefits he hath done unto me ! " And 
what then is the practical re-action of the grateful spirit to- 
wards Him who has come down to us from heaven, and died 
for us upon the cross I How can we express that new condi- 
tion and relation of the will towards a redeeming God, but in 
the burning words of Paul, " The love of Christ constrain- 
eth us ! Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then 
were all dead ; and that he died for all, that they which live 
should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that 
died for them and rose again ! " 

And what then shall we say to the dutiful devotedness which 
we owe to Him who is thus revealed to us, as our redeeming 
God ? Can any one be satisfied with less than the giving up 
his whole self to that Deliverer, who gave himself for us ? 
Does not the Christian long, and strive, to take Christ's will 
into his own, that it may rule, and actuate, and reduce it into 



466 BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 

universal harmony with his ? Do you not feel that in being 
rescued by him from the law of sin and death you are thereby 
brought into allegiance to the law of Christ ; so that you 
should regard yourself as crucified with Christ, and though 
you live, yet not you, but Christ lives in you ? And will you 
not confess that never has Duty, " daughter of the voice of 
God," so sovereign a power over us, (as never does she bear 
so sweet an aspect towards us,) as when we have ourselves 
with our own hands enthroned her in a heart won over, and 
reduced into affectionate submission, by the love of Christ ? — 
" Stern Lawgiver ! yet thou dost wear 
The Godhead's most benignant grace ; 
Nor know we anything so fair 

As is the smile upon thy face : 
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds ; 
And Fragrance in thy footing treads ; 
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong ; 

And the most ancient heavens, through Thee are fresh and 
strong ! " 

But what if this further revelation of God's character and 
relation to you, only makes you feel the more your degeneracy ; 
even as the approach of that parent in the parable would make 
his self- upbraiding son the more ashamed of the rags, and 
filth, and disease, and destitution, in which he was endeavour- 
ing to creep back towards his home ? What if the nearer you 
come to the perception of God's holiness as your Father, and the 
more you feel extended to you his compassion as your Redeemer, 
you are pained and humbled and alarmed at your corruption — 
your remaining rebelliousness — your ingratitude — ^your inability 
to do his will and glorify his name ; — then, does not all this 
render indispensable to you, and make proportionably welcome 
to you, that discovery of his character in relation to this par- 
ticular also of your nature and condition, which is proclaimed 
in that division of the Creed which tells of " God the Holy 



BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 467 

Ghost, who sanctifieth all the elect people of God ? " Yes ! 
He can restore as well as pardon I He can live in you as well 
as die for you. He can deck you with the ornaments of holi- 
ness as well as free you from the wretchedness of guilt. He 
can put on you the best robe^, and put a ring on your hand and 
shoes on your feet. He can re-instate you in all the splendour 
of sonship, as well as in your right and title to it. He can 
endow you with the gifts of grace, as well as of righteousness, 
through the descent into your soul, and the indwelling, of the 
Holy Ghost I " Such were some of you ; but ye are washed, 
but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, and hy the Spirit of our God." 

And what then is the practical submission which we owe to 
such a truth as this ? If God the Holy Ghost is the Author 
of all godliness, must we not learn to count religion a work 
not of the understanding merely, as the acknowledgment of 
truth, and the assent to evidence, and the surrender to argu- 
ment ; — nor a work of the imagination, as a mere soaring into 
the ideal, and the realizing of poetic dreams of dignity and 
grandeur and sentimentality ; — no nor a work of the animal 
emotions, as the indulging in devout affection, and nourishing 
the dubious and dangerous warmth of an enamoured fervour ; 
— still less a work of external reverence and ceremony, wasting 
the energies in the pomp and circumstance of a ritual worship, 
and the puerilities of a superstitious strictness, and the scru- 
pulosities of an enslaved and grovelling conscience, summing 
up all perfection in implicit obedience to priestly authority ; — 
but a work of the mind, and heart, and will combined — of the 
whole spirituality of our being, harmonized by the presence 
and indwelling of the Spirit of light, and life, and power ; who 
warms while he illuminates, guides while he impels, and ren- 
ders our obedience not the blind submission of a slave, but the 
reasonable service of a child of God whom the truth makes free. 



468 BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 

Nor less is the Christian bound to confide in the Spirit of 
God, than to honour him by the nature of the service which he 
endeavours to render. The Holy Ghost is vouchsafed, not 
only to teach us what we ought to be, but to enable us so to 
be. And never do we confess him with a practical faith, if 
while we adore his Deity, and strive to imitate his purity, we 
do not surrender ourselves unreservedly to his holy inspirations, 
and begin, continue, and end our works in Him, Not by the 
arguments of prudence — not by the persuasions of philosophy 
— not by the efforts of self-determination — ^but by the bathing 
in the atmosphere, the inhaling the breath, the living by the 
life, of Him who is " the Lord and Giver of life," must the 
Christian put from him sin — and rise superior to temptation-r- 
and be vigorous in duty — and bring forth the " fruits of 
righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and 
praise of God." " This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and 
ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance," 

And therefore, finally, our great duty to the Spirit of God 
is diligently to cherish his holy inspirations. There is an in- 
spiration of the Holy Ghost which belongs to all Christians in 
every age, and without which they can never perfectly love 
God nor worthily magnify his holy name. In this must we 
live. By this must we be elevated above ourselves — animated 
to high thoughts and heavenly cogitations — sustained in noble 
and valorous deeds. They who languish always in a spiritual 
sloth ; whose views of divine things are obscure, — their feeling 
of them cold — their efforts towards them feeble — never can 
rise above the vulgar herd of merely nominal Christians, Not 
such were the Apostles of Christ — not such the noble army of 
martyrs — not such the saints in every age, who have lived as 
in the presence of their Father, and their Saviour, and 



BELIEF, A PRACTICAL SUBMISSION TO TRUTH. 469 

breathed, while yet on earth, the atmosphere of heaven. A 
genuine enthusiasm — a presence in their soul of Deity him- 
self — a life as equable as it was vigorous, which set and kept 
in motion all the powers of their being — this kindled in them 
sentiments, breathed through them feelings, quickened them 
to actions, worthy of Him who had called them to his king- 
dom and glory. And when shall we imitate them ? How 
shall we, like them, manifest ourselves the temples of the 
Holy Ghost? Only as we cherish those blessed moments 
when our thoughts mount upwards to the pure serene of 
heavenly cogitation, and in the clear bright light of heaven we 
see things as they are I Only as we foster that pure, though 
ardent glow of spirit from which there flashes forth many a 
burning purpose of devoted love I Only as we cultivate that 
compact, concentrated, state of will, when filled and actuated 
by some grand idea, we see, desire, pursue, one thing : and 
God's commandment all alone lives in us unmixed with baser 
matter I O to be indeed thus " in the Spirit I " — to live the 
truths that we have learned !— to be as we believe I 



THE END. 



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Bangor House, Shoe Lane. 



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